By Anne Scheck
COUNCILORS & MAYOR TO BE SWORN IN TUES.
Two new city councilors as well as a returning one are scheduled to be sworn in this Tuesday, along with the incumbent mayor.
Re-elected Councilor Kathy Martin-Willis and Mayor John McArdle are slated to take the oath of office along with incoming Councilors Sarah Jobe and Dawn Hedrick-Roden. Jobe will take the seat vacated by Jennifer Ranstrom-Smith; Hedrick-Roden defeated incumbent Michael Hicks, who will serve the city in his newly appointed capacity as member of the MINET Board. The meeting is at 6:30 pm, Civic Center; live-streamed for viewing.
Council actions, which involve some code and parking adoptions, will be covered in the next Linking Letter.
An EDITORIAL COMMENTARY by
Anne Scheck / TRAMMART NEWS
Today I was alerted to the fact that the city had posted a news release. I usually welcome such announcements as they provide a fact-based way for me to do a quick send-out, sometimes in a Trammart News Facebook posting. And, generally, they’re infrequent -- so I’m glad to get one and I try to use them. I’m making an exception today. If you want to read this one, it’s on the city’s Facebook page, not here. Reasons are below.
[] I cannot confirm the fact that the person who’s the subject of the news release does, as claimed, only collect mail at the Independence Post Office. In fact, I’ve snail-mailed this individual at what seems to be an Independence address--it’s not our post office. See, I’ve got a habit of sending a copy of The Independent containing guest editorials to the personal address of anyone in elected office who does this kind of writing. I also try to include a hand-made thank-you note…though, since I’m not crafty, the note is usually pretty lousy-looking. But I do it, anyway! I did so for Danny Jaffer, who wrote a stellar, widely-read, still-referenced editorial on water (thanks again, Mr. Jaffer). FYI, the note I sent Mr. Jaffer was the absolute worst-looking one so far. Sometimes a “fail” is all I can muster…
[] Online oppositional comments seemed to fly from this press-release posting by the city (53 of them, the last time I checked). Here is a confession: I am a weary, aging boomer. I just don’t want to do anything that might spur more volatility. And I’m not sure a back-and-forth exchange in the comments section of the city’s FB adds much to the issue. This is not the result of our city, of course. And, as an obsessive Freedom-of-Speech advocate, I certainly applaud exercising the First Amendment. But does anyone else find this local political polarity mentally exhausting? Or is this an age-related old-lady thing? I think I’ve handled pandemic stressors better than seemingly ceaseless donkey-versus-elephant divides…
[] I do support news releases! In fact, most of the time, I regard them as wonderfully instructive. I’ll request one on our annual audit. That jumble of numbers in the packet is always hard for me to decipher and, on one occasion, I took it to a kindly accountant. Then, last year, I followed our city auditor from council chambers into the Civic Center parking lot with questions, after she repeatedly told me she was in a rush. Despite what you may see in TV shows, chasing someone is really not what journalists like myself wish to do. We are usually just trying to solidify information.
COUNCILORS & MAYOR TO BE SWORN IN TUES.
Two new city councilors as well as a returning one are scheduled to be sworn in this Tuesday, along with the incumbent mayor.
Re-elected Councilor Kathy Martin-Willis and Mayor John McArdle are slated to take the oath of office along with incoming Councilors Sarah Jobe and Dawn Hedrick-Roden. Jobe will take the seat vacated by Jennifer Ranstrom-Smith; Hedrick-Roden defeated incumbent Michael Hicks, who will serve the city in his newly appointed capacity as member of the MINET Board. The meeting is at 6:30 pm, Civic Center; live-streamed for viewing.
Council actions, which involve some code and parking adoptions, will be covered in the next Linking Letter.
An EDITORIAL COMMENTARY by
Anne Scheck / TRAMMART NEWS
Today I was alerted to the fact that the city had posted a news release. I usually welcome such announcements as they provide a fact-based way for me to do a quick send-out, sometimes in a Trammart News Facebook posting. And, generally, they’re infrequent -- so I’m glad to get one and I try to use them. I’m making an exception today. If you want to read this one, it’s on the city’s Facebook page, not here. Reasons are below.
[] I cannot confirm the fact that the person who’s the subject of the news release does, as claimed, only collect mail at the Independence Post Office. In fact, I’ve snail-mailed this individual at what seems to be an Independence address--it’s not our post office. See, I’ve got a habit of sending a copy of The Independent containing guest editorials to the personal address of anyone in elected office who does this kind of writing. I also try to include a hand-made thank-you note…though, since I’m not crafty, the note is usually pretty lousy-looking. But I do it, anyway! I did so for Danny Jaffer, who wrote a stellar, widely-read, still-referenced editorial on water (thanks again, Mr. Jaffer). FYI, the note I sent Mr. Jaffer was the absolute worst-looking one so far. Sometimes a “fail” is all I can muster…
[] Online oppositional comments seemed to fly from this press-release posting by the city (53 of them, the last time I checked). Here is a confession: I am a weary, aging boomer. I just don’t want to do anything that might spur more volatility. And I’m not sure a back-and-forth exchange in the comments section of the city’s FB adds much to the issue. This is not the result of our city, of course. And, as an obsessive Freedom-of-Speech advocate, I certainly applaud exercising the First Amendment. But does anyone else find this local political polarity mentally exhausting? Or is this an age-related old-lady thing? I think I’ve handled pandemic stressors better than seemingly ceaseless donkey-versus-elephant divides…
[] I do support news releases! In fact, most of the time, I regard them as wonderfully instructive. I’ll request one on our annual audit. That jumble of numbers in the packet is always hard for me to decipher and, on one occasion, I took it to a kindly accountant. Then, last year, I followed our city auditor from council chambers into the Civic Center parking lot with questions, after she repeatedly told me she was in a rush. Despite what you may see in TV shows, chasing someone is really not what journalists like myself wish to do. We are usually just trying to solidify information.
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