What a great community we have! I was so proud of our town this morning as we had over 30 people show up to volunteer to “pick up bricks and lay them straight” on our East Grand Avenue Rebuild Project. It was awesome to see people from middle school age all the way to Baby Boomers (trying to find a polite way to refer to us “seniors”). In some cases three generations of families were represented. While the time was limited to 3 hours (to avoid the brutal temps we are getting this week) a lot of great work was done, and I encourage everyone to come out and support this project as you are able.
We will be back out this Wednesday morning from 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM and this Thursday evening from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM. Check the City of Hillsboro’s Facebook page for updated schedules. It looks like it will take a few of these sessions to complete the work, but when it’s done it will be a beautiful addition to our town.
Since we are on the topic of volunteerism, in a town our size, it takes a strong commitment from citizens and a lot of volunteering to make things happen and realize the potential of our community. Opportunities to volunteer abound and I would ask all of us to consider giving of our time and talents. It can be a city project, a school project, a club or a church project. Volunteering gets us connected to our neighbors in a way we can never be when we are behind our phones or computers.
Communities thrive and survive only when their citizens are truly in “community” with each other. For example, I really appreciated the turnout for Bigloo with Big Lou at the Igloo night a couple of weeks ago. A lot of us got the chance to connect face-to-face.
Budgets
We are right in the middle of budget season. It seems like we just did this yesterday but a year has gone by. I will tell you that it’s going to be very tough to hold the line on the mill levy. We are scrutinizing every area and I can assure you that we will do all we can. There may be some tough choices to be made, and I encourage you to talk with your council members and participate in this process. Last year we had no one show up for the budget hearing (we were able to hold the line on the levy last year as it turned out) but the decisions we have to make affect us all. If you want your voice to be heard, you need to step up and give us your input.
Final Thoughts
We held a couple of neighborhood meetings regarding upcoming street projects last week and want to thank everyone for attending. Being able to share information and then answer questions make things go a lot smoother in the long run. I also appreciate everyone’s patience with our crews that are working on these vital improvements to our city.
I also want to let you know that we are working with the Hospital Receiver to ensure, as I say to anyone who asks, that Hillsboro is not going to lose our hospital, period. As we are able to provide you with additional information we will do so, but please understand that, following the advice of our attorneys, we are not able to comment further at this point.
It’s hot out there, so do what you can to stay cool!
