Welcome to the Mayor of Chugwater's Blog! This is open for ideas, thoughts, and opinions on what is best for the town of Chugwater.
Why did I run for Mayor? I wanted to do something to help Chugwater. We are facing economic issues, low enrollment in school, no gas station, empty homes with no people, and empty businesses with no people. I would like to spend my time enhancing what we have rather then building new. To protect our way of life. Chugwater is a small town with a big heart. The people here are full of passion. With a wide range of difference of opinions. However, in order for us to move forward it will take all of us working together for the common good of Chugwater.
In the past 10 months we have accomplished: Teal Pathways Phase 1, and finished the Street Project on 7th Street, which also included a Safe Routes to School Side Walk. We also looped the water line on 7th Street for an even flow of water. Two more Safe Routes to School Side Walks will be bid on in the spring. Through Net Work Solutions we have a new Website (www.Chugwater.com), and a Facebook page. We now have our industrial lots business ready and available for sale. The ambulance equipment has been updated with a new gurney, and two EAD machines. It is now prepared and supply ready for any natural disaster that our small community might encounter. The walls in the Ambulance Bay, the archive room and another office space are all complete due to a grant.
The next project we are working on is getting funding for a Firing Range outside of town limits west of town. We are currently having a Craft Fair October 26th at the Business Center from 10am-3pm. Followed by a Monster Mash Dance from 6pm-9pm at the Community Center. Starting in October The Town is working with the Community Center in organizing a Cancer Quilt for survivors as well as those who didn't make it. Anyone can do a block for a family member, friend or love one. Once the quilt is complete it will be on a rotating display throughout Chugwater's businesses, museum, town hall, and library. Each block will cost $15, an you can paint on the block, quilt on it whatever you choose to represent your loved one. There are 40 blocks available. Also, we are looking into a grant to open up an Art and Craft Gallery at the Business Center. This would help bring people into town as well as promote our Business Center for future businesses.
With the loss of Horton's Corner we have lost a lot of income in our small town. We lost our gas and cigarette tax, 9 jobs, and high way traffic coming through town. The property is for sale at $400,000 with Rite Agency in Wheatland. The tanks are DEQ and EPA certified and ready to go.
I look forward to hearing your ideas and your thoughts for Chugwater.
LaDonna Sand
Continued from above...Also to the citizens and potential citizens
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, because we did not have a water bill and only a garbage bill, and our water was ordered to be shut off, they will now bill us a $25 reconnect fee. To top it all off, they pull this the day before the Holiday weekend. Knowing that we would not be able to go in until Monday to get it turned back on. I know that stating my opinion at a meeting is not popular with the Mayor, but to pull this on us is not ethical and is vindictive. Well Mayor Sand, well played, you might however need to start sending out shut off notices and send out bills with the correct information on them. My garbage bill is all tied into my town bill, when that is the only service I used until less than a week ago and my deposit being paid, I had no water bill to warrant my water being shut off. It's also not like you or the treasurer, who does the billing couldn't have pulled one of us aside at the council meeting and said something there and we would have then paid the bill, to wait until before a holiday and to pull that with no previous water bill being owed and with a disabled veteran in the home is so unethical it is pathetic.
Did the council his the company out of Douglas to do the water rate study or did you do that on your own because it was apparent at the meeting that the towns people were confused as to why Rural Water was not doing it like they have in the past. It was also stated that Rural Water did not have time "at this time" to do the study, then, after a little more questioning from the towns people, it was stated that this study has been requested for a year. So, we are being told bottom line that Rural Water has not had time in a year to come up? So, we would like you to produce the documentation that shows that the council agreed to the hiring of this other company and we will ask the man who tapes every meeting to check his tapes to see when it was voted on. We will also be calling Rural Water to check and see when the requests from the town came in for them to come do the study. That is one the wonderful things of being married to a "water man" he knows the people to talk to and he knows the questions to ask.
There have been so many other issues here. Changing the Mayor slot from a 2 year term to a 4 year term upon taking over started this off, then to remove the nepotism and have a close family member become treasurer. Yes, these were passed through a council at that time of friends instead of other town members who also put in for the slots but were not appointed. The list of what has happened in this town goes on from the upstanding people that do live here that it has been mind boggling.
So, to all who might consider moving here, please either come with the knowledge that we need you to help us take our town back or wait until the next election when other people run and the Mayor isn't chosen because no one else ran.
Madam Mayor, we are tired of being over run and ignored and this council that is there now has brains enough to know what to vote on and what to shut down. This is the people's town, not exclusively yours, so we will see you there at every meeting and we will be heard as we have a right to be. Also, again, you have your opinion of what you think is right and we have all heard it, that does not make yours the only one that matters. As far as where I bank, that is not your concern either! Your opinion is your opinion and so be it, but as long as we pay our taxes in this county and that town money belongs to the town and is not your personal account, you can have your opinion and I can have mine but trying to shut me up at a council meeting over it once your opinion is out is not going to work. There will be no untruths told from my lips, can you say the same about yours?
Continued again to citizens and potential citizens
ReplyDeleteSo, that is my comment, my suggestion is that you resign from being Mayor. If you really love this town, then do the best thing for it and allow someone in that office that will do what is the right thing for the community and listen and do what the community wants. You work for the community, you were placed there because no one else ran that year, I think the town people have found that grave error to have been detrimental to this town and that will not happen again. As a public figure, it is up to you to listen and you don't. The council meeting was one big argument the whole time, you arguing with everything the town people said, how is that listening? I and others would like answers to our questions and not to be blown off. I know it was brought up that you resign before, if you truly listened to the people of this community, you would have do so then, it is not a select few that want you out of office, it is a select few that want you to stay in office. Roberts Rule Of Order, the majority vote wins correct? Please just take a minute to reflect on how many would like you to step down and just do it.