One size fits all plans and rates isn’t a fair way to bill or provide service to residents.  Some only need once a week service; some need twice a week service.  Some people have lots of yard waste to dispose of; others don’t.  Some people can manhandle the large, heavy totes and others can’t.  They are cumbersome to move around because I’ve had one for almost 15 years and dragging it up and down a driveway situated on a hill is not easy and impossible during bad winter weather.  I just leave mine in the front yard year round and carry the garbage to it.  It’s also very hard to pick up when the garbage hauler tosses it down into the ditch.  I have a hard time getting it back upright because I’m not that tall.  Even with all that, I can live with the big totes, as annoying as they may be.

I can’t believe yard waste issues and leaves (leaves!) are being so hotly discussed at another council meeting still in 2010.  We really should put our heads together and get this worked out.  One gentleman brought up the issue that yard waste would only be picked up in November at no extra charge under the new proposal. During other months a $1.50 sticker per yard waste bag or can would be charged. Well, November can be real nasty.  It can turn cold fast and stay cold.  Trying to rake or dispose of leaves in such weather would cause many to not do anything with their leaves.  Personally, I just mulch my leaves with the lawn mower a couple times in the Fall and it takes care of the problem.  I never rake!  I hate raking. I know some people won’t do that and prefer to bag – expanding the free pickup months from October-November makes sense.

The justification for the price increase still hasn’t been explained well to me.  This seems like it benefits the garbage haulers 100% and the residents 0%.  If anything costs should go down.  I also think attaching the fee to municipal water bills is going to cost the city more in the long run – $140,000 a year more just for mailing expenses alone.  Clearly more thinking needs to go into this.

The one thing I’m probably at odds with against  many of those who spoke against the entire proposal was the recycling portion.  I don’t think the city voiced well enough why we need to recycle more.  It is very costly to expand or create a new landfill.  We would be paying that bill eventually.  Doing nothing isn’t going to solve the fact that, unless we begin to recycle considerably more, we’re going to have to trash up more of our land.  I don’t understand why people would be so mad that they wouldn’t even entertain the thought of recycling garbage.  That part baffles me but people are funny.

So, I would suggest customizable service plans for customers, reducing rates (Waste Management which has been running a pilot once a week pickup program in the city stated at the meeting that they have saved considerable money and could charge in the $14 range easily and be profitable – $2 below what the city is proposing), revamping yard waste regulations and costs and educating the public better about the benefits both environmentally and economically of recycling.

They have their job cut out for them, as one gentlemen acknowledged at the meeting.

However, I am concerned about the once a week pickup for all residents.  That may be fine if a household is small but there’s many, many weeks when we’ve needed twice a week service.  Maybe recycling more will help offset the decreased service.  Increasing the rate for garbage hauling when the service provided is essentially going to be cut in half seems a hard sell to Decatur residents.  The new rate would be $16.50 a month with annual increases for the next five years.

The city council will be discussing this issue, along with other items during its Tuesday Sept. 7th meeting.  Read Entire Council Agenda

Set to the annoying tune:  The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Pains of Home Buying

Ditsy Real Estate Agents

Cold-blooded Bankers

Bad 70’s Décor

Moldy Basements

“Oops we didn’t disclose that?”

30 years of bills…

Endless searching

The picture looked much better

That’s a closet not a bedroom

What’s that smell?

30 years of bills…

Ugly wallpaper

Wallpaper that won’t scrape off

Wallpaper that never should have been put on

The fact that wallpaper should be banned

30 years of bills…

Faux painting gone bad

Strange stains in the carpet

Ghosts in the attic

Wondering who’s buried in the cellar

30 years of bills…

Lead in the plumbing

Asbestos in the ceiling

Termites in the framing

Radon gas silently leaking

30 years of bills…

Storm sewers spewing

Over-assessed tax bills

Schools old and scary

Anti-social psycho neighbors

Bills until you die…

I’ve been busy in my backyard with a new patio and pergola.  I even dug out the old pool from the shed and it keeps me entertained.  I wade around and scoop up the dead bugs and leaves.  I water the new bushes and tend to the flowers.  I smack off the moquitoes and pull weeds out of the rocks.  I’ve decided that container gardening is for me!  No more big gardens that require bending over, chopping out weeds and being swarmed by insects.  This year, I’ve actually taken pretty good care of my plants. Usually by July, my vegetable garden resembled a vacant lot overtaken by rogue weeds.

My husband and I have been house shopping as well.  We’re hoping to find a country home for my husband’s landscaping business and I still haven’t given up on my dream of owning a horse.  I also want a work shed to create my stained glass.  Working out of the basement isn’t ideal.  When it isn’t wet it’s fine but I still would prefer a better ventilated space to solder.  It’s probably not a good idea to have lead around the kids either!  We’ll probably put the house on the market in the Spring if everything goes well.  So, I’ll be busy cleaning and painting the house from top to bottom and tossing out 15 years of accumulated “things”.  If we do move, I’m sure going to miss the house.  I get attached way too easily to inanimate objects.  My husband is one example.  (Couldn’t resist.)  If the new owners even touch one of the trees or bushes I’ve planted, I’ll weep.

Carbon sequestration is really nothing new.  In fact the oil industry has used it for several years to help attain hard to get oil supplies.  It has been tested several places in the world but not on a massively large scale.  It’s a very political topic.  Most lawmakers are for it.  It seems to address global warming while helping bring in big dollar industry to their constituents, however residents often aren’t as gung ho for the practice.  People in both the United States and Europe have protested such experimenting in their communities.  They sometimes are successful in blocking carbon sequestration projects in their area.

A major proponent of carbon sequestration is the coal industry.  If sequestration proves successful, more coal power plants and coal burning factories could be built and utilized.  However, there are risks with the containment of so much carbon dioxide below the ground.  It wouldn’t take a very large leak to wreak a lot of havoc.  Carbon dioxide wells would have to be monitored for decades, if not hundreds of years.  Future generations will have to make sure leaks don’t occur from such wells, even if future generation have moved on from our reliance of fossil fuels.

What could a carbon dioxide leak do?  Well, there are pockets of carbon dioxide naturally occurring on our planet.  In 1986 1,700 people died from a sudden release of carbon dioxide from beneath Lake Nyos in Cameroon.  Humans and animals died of suffocation from the release.  Such a scenario seems very unlikely in Decatur but suggesting the Gulf of Mexico would fill with oil, from a spill that so far can’t be contained, seemed unlikely three months ago.  Things happen.

We now know that science and technology is limited and we aren’t nearly as smart as we sometimes give ourselves credit for.  We should know large companies often cut corners and can be less than truthful with the public.  We should know that government regulations are often not enforced and government officials are sometimes literally in the sack with the industries they’re supposed to regulating.  We should ask ourselves if we trust big business and our government to be honest with us.

Are the residents of Decatur guinea pigs for the project?  What about the earthquakes that happen in this region?  Is it really a good idea to experiment in a populated area?  Shouldn’t we have a say in whether this goes on under our backyards?

Carbon sequestration may prove to be completely safe but I don’t know that I enjoy being the mouse in the laboratory.

More Links:

• One community’s fight against carbon sequestration
• Another article about the same community’s successful fight to stop a carbon sequestration project in their county.
• Another interesting link

What struck me the most about our downtown yesterday is the lack of available ground floor retail space.  When you think about it, there’s not many buildings left, in a desirable location to place a store.  It would be great if one or more of the larger vacant buildings cater to small to medium-size shops.  It’s unlikely any retailer moving downtown is going to need 60,000 square feet of space – very unlikely.  A start-up business isn’t going to have the funds to extensively remodel an existing building either, so many larger spaces remain largely vacant.  Downtown would be a great place for a small business incubator, of sorts.  Have an area with affordable rent and incentives for entrepreneurs to move in and give it a try.  That can’t be done if the space isn’t available.

The Business Center located on S. Imboden helps new businesses get off the ground with affordable rent, however it’s not an ideal location for retail.  It would be great if the same concept could be done downtown.

It’s down to two plans, the Arboretum Village and the Adventure Fitness Concept.  Both plans have residential development, however the arboretum has considerably more residential development to help finance the project, since the gardens wouldn’t be a big money generator.  This includes two-story residential units with parking underneath; each would contain 4 units per building.  Four 8-10 story apartment building would be constructed.  The adventure plan would have two 3 story residential/commercial buildings in the core of Nelson Park.  Chandler Park would feature a 3-story residential village.  A pond would be created in the center of the village but not connected to the lake.  Both plans feature an indoor/outdoor waterpark, wave pool and an expanded 36 hole mini-golf course,  however the adventure plan also calls for a white water rapids course, climbing walls, boardwalk with outdoor dining, cross country race course, urban mountain biking/running trails and a high rope course.

After looking over the plans, I think the adventure concept is superior in many ways.  One, it has the potential to truly generate considerable income for the city.  Its attractions would be more likely to draw visitors from the Midwest.  A more passive, conservative plan will have to rely much more on residential development, which I’m still not crazy about.  To me, Nelson Park will always be a park and its purpose should be to improve the quality of life for all Decatur residents – not just those who can afford to purchase a home along its shores or purchase a boat to enjoy an upgraded marina.  I want to be able to park, get out of my car and walk along a public shore on public land or a public boardwalk. So much of the lake is already residential.  I don’t see the need for more unless it caters to people of more modest incomes of all ages.

Something that greatly concerns me about either plan is that the only parts that are sure to be completed are the residential development.  Decatur was promised a water park before.  We paid for a road to help facilitate such a project that never materialized.  Call me skeptical but Decatur’s been burned before.  I want it in writing that before any residential development can take place it has to coincide with the construction of other project plans – especially the water park.  No phased stages that may never happen.  All or nothing and all at once.  I can live with a modest tax increase if that will ensure the entire plan approved materializes in a timely manner.

That being said, I am very much excited about the adventure-fitness concept.  It looks wonderful!  If I lived in another city and saw a brochure for Decatur with such attractions, I’d be paying Decatur a visit.  It pushes much of the residential development to Chandler Park, which currently isn’t utilized much by the public.  The other residential features in the Nelson Park area are more acceptable to me.

Take a look at the plans and don’t forget to send your comments and suggestions to the lakefront team!

Adventure-Fitness

Arboretum-Village Concept

But my favorite destination has to be Big Trade Lake in Wisconsin. My parents, two older brothers and I, along with my parents’ best friends and their five kids spent two weeks there every July. My dad had a 1970 Chevy pickup with a truck camper and a Jon boat. My first trip to Wisconsin was when I was four years old and the last when I was sixteen.

The campground was situated on a small, narrow peninsula on the lake. Cedar trees lined the shores and filled the air with their glorious scent. A natural spring provided fresh, cold drinking water – the best water I’ve ever had. The fishing was great. Nobody ever went back skunked.

There’s a lot of funny memories of our vacations at the lake but the parts I remember most were the preparation and the traveling. Before 51 was a four-lane highway to Bloomington, that stretch of road was the worst part of the whole trip. It was often bumper to bumper. We had the misfortune of being stuck behind a pig farmer in a beater pickup from Clinton to Bloomington on one trip. We couldn’t pass because the oncoming traffic never let up. 30 miles an hour for 30 miles was enough to send anyone over the edge. Thank goodness we could close off the window from the truck to the camper once my dad became more and more perturbed. It was probably after this trip that my parents decided to travel at night.

We’d leave at midnight, after my dad came home from Caterpillar and our friends met us from Taylorville. Our friends often went over-prepared and often arrived late. They had the same size boat as us but it was loaded down with so many supplies, the trailer nearly buckled from the weight. One time, they had packed two cases of pork and beans. My dad got a laugh out of it and told them, if they ran out of gas between stations, they’d be prepared!

My mom cleaned the house from top to bottom and inside and out before our trips. She ran in and out of the front door carrying this and carrying that, often times nearing her breaking point. We knew to steer clear and do what we were told – even if cleaning a house that would sit empty for two weeks, didn’t seem to make any sense. I never knew what the big deal was. It was a vacation. It was supposed to be fun. Now that I have to make the vacation plans, I completely understand and when I come back from a vacation, the last thing I want to do is come home to a dirty house.

I’d lie down in the camper and try to fall asleep but usually never managed to. My hamster inside its cage rode next to me. She tried to run on her wheel but that didn’t work out too well along the bumpy highways. By dawn we’d be in Wisconsin. The hills, trees and rocks amazed me. Growing up in Decatur, I hadn’t had much experience with hills, miles of forest or really big rocks. They intrigued me. They still do!

But there’s something about packing up your life, even temporarily, and heading for some distant place that fries the mind. It’s adventurous but kind of scary at the same time. It’s not as if there aren’t Wal-Mart’s in every state, just in case you forget to pack your socks and underwear. You’re not going to skin a deer for clothing or stitch together fig leaves for your undergarments. Civilization is widespread but it just feels weird to buy underwear outside your home town.

Tuesday, May 11
6:15 p.m.
Scovill Golf Course Banquet Center (3909 W. Main St.)

More details will be given about specific proposed plans for Lake Decatur.  I’m interested to see what escaped the chopping block.  I hope I like what I see.

Another link with more details: http://www.teskaassociates.com/sustainabledecatur/documents/resources/compplan/1-3.pdf