Lincolnite

The last public forum for budget-related discussions is tomorrow night at Lincoln High, from 6:00 to 8:00pm. If you have something to say, it's an excellent chance to be heard. I've been told that one of the recent public meetings only had 11 participants. That's an annoyingly low number, but it isn't all that surprising. There are an awful lot of people in this town who seem to enjoy grumbling, but not in the fora where their voices can very directly be heard. It is a very frustrating problem for City officials. Then again, Lincoln's officials haven't exactly bred trust in this sort of process over the years. Take the Comprehensive Plan public meetings from a few years ago. I closely followed the Plan creation process. It was very disappointing to see how few of the public's specific suggestions made their way into the final product. The process felt designed to simulate a participatory atmosphere, rather than actually being participatory. Maybe that's (part of) the reason why more people haven't taken the opportunity to be active in helping to shape the next budget. Or maybe many people are realists, and they know that the thing they most want axed from the budget simply isn't going to be cut. Indeed, there are lots of budget items that will stick around, whatever the public's opinion of them. For example, many items are required by Federal law. In other cases, the public is screaming to "cut the fat", but the budget item is already down to skin and bones. Or maybe folks are waiting around for the next LPS budget meeting. After all, Mayor Beutler has all but said, "They're the ones taking most of your property tax dollar. Quit picking on us and give the folks at LPSDO a good grilling!"

Boy oh boy, what a beautiful day yesterday for a Marathon, no? It almost made me wish I was out there running. Then I remembered that if I actually tried to run a marathon, it would probably kill me. Literally. That sort of takes the fun out of the whole thing. Instead of running, I spent the day working outside. I mowed, played in the garden and cleaned out the garage. My big project was tearing out a rock pathway I had put in a couple years ago. Unfortunately, I put it in very, very poorly. Redoing it will probably take two more weekends, but it will be worth it to have a new path that doesn't look so terrible. We finished up the day with a trip to Lee's, which was packed. Then we hopped across the street to the ice cream stand, followed by a quick trip through Pioneers Park to see the bison. How was your weekend?

Hi folks, sorry there weren't any new posts waiting for you this morning. I began working with a new outfit last week and, well, they've been keeping me busy. Here are some quick bits for the lunch hour:

• Kohl's is coming in October to 27th and Yankee Hill
• City government offices are now BYOBW (bring your own bottled water). Let's be sure not to spend the $9,000 we'll save all in one place.
• Several Lincoln high school teams will be in Omaha next week for the State Soccer Tournament. I'll be there too, so sorry, no commentary from me about the teams.
• The Lincoln Marathon is Sunday morning! I will probably watch parts of it from the area of 48th and Highway 2. If you plan to drive anywhere between Capital Parkway, Highway 2, 9th Street and 70th Street, you had best give yourself plenty of time.

The police spokesman said they are ever vigilant and on the lookout for wedgies here. "You might get away with that in Lincoln or Omaha," the spokesman said. "But we’re not going to allow wedgies in North Platte."

Read all about it.