FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2009
12:50 PM

I have had another busy week. Monday was a legal holiday. I spent most of the day at home. I cleaned up the yard again. Most of the material I had to take care of was leaves. That may have been the last time I have to deal with leaves until this fall. I hope so.

I traveled to North Little Rock on Tuesday. I attended the executive committee meeting of the municipal league. The meeting was very interesting. Most of the time was spent discussing the general assembly meeting at the state capital. So far this year the bills that the league has supported have had a positive response from the general assembly.

Our dryer stopped working on Tuesday. It is under warranty so I called Sears. They sent a repairman to the house on Wednesday. The repairman told me that I did not have a dryer problem. He said the problem was electrical. Yesterday I contacted a local electrician and he repaired the wiring in a few minutes. I am so glad to live in a small town at times like this. I am able to get someone I know and trust to help me with problems like we had this week.

I spent most of the day yesterday participating in meetings. First of all I held my weekly staff meeting. I then attended the board meeting for the chamber of commerce. There was nothing unusual that took place at those meetings. Just normal business.

I traveled to Forrest City yesterday afternoon and attended a meeting at the East Arkansas Enterprise Community office. The purpose of the meeting was to make proposals for the stimulus money that the state will receive from the federal government. The proposal that I presented was Town Creek. The city has been working to secure federal funding for this project for several years. It is a multi million dollar project. It is also one that is shovel ready. That seems to be one of the type projects that make receive funding from the stimulus money. If that project were to be completed, it would drastically change a big section of Wynne.

I returned to Wynne and had a meeting with a representative of Murphy Oil company. They offer a program that allows cities to purchase their fuel from one of their stations. They send us a detailed bill each month. I will discuss this next week with the department heads. We might decide to go the route for the purchase of fuel.

I then attended the economic development board meeting. The huge push for that board now is the sales tax election on March 10th. If the tax does not pass, the economic development opportunities for Wynne and Cross County will almost stop. It takes money to fund the office of economic development and also have some local money available to help with the location of industries in this area.

Today has been slower. I did, just before lunch, have an interesting request. The Memphis airport called and said that they had lost contact with a plane. They thought that they may have landed at the Wynne airport. I told them that I would visit the airport and look for the plane. I was about half way there when Theda called and told me that they had called back and that they had located the plane in Forrest City. The plane did have problems and had landed at the airport in Forrest City.

Pat's eye surgery appears to have been successful. She went to the doctor again yesterday and everything still looks good. She is ready to have surgery on the other one now. Her vision has improved greatly.

On a sad note, one of our neighbors passed away on Monday. She and her family have lived in the Village since we moved there in 1974. She was 80 years old and had some health problems the last few years. Pat and I visited the family home on Monday night. They did not have a public visitation and we were unable to attend the graveside services because of other commitments. There are only three families still living in the Village that were there when we move there.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2009
3:31 PM

This has been a busy week for me. The city council met on Tuesday night. We had a long agenda, but the meeting went very well. There were eight resolutions to read an be passed. Carol helped me out by reading 1/2 of the longest one. It was four pages, single spaced. I read the other seven. After the council meeting I had two other meetings to attend. I got home about 9:30pm.

On Wednesday morning I carried Pat to Jonesboro for eye surgery. The surgery went well. It took a little longer because the power had been off in the office and they were a little over and hour behind. J.L. Campbell was also there. He had surgery scheduled one hour after Pat. They had the same doctor.

Pat and I went to here local doctor on Thursday morning. He told us that everything look good and the test he administered confirmed his visual test. She went back this morning and he told her that everything still looked good and the test he performed also were positive.

When I went home for lunch yesterday Pat asked me if I knew that the sky was blue and the clouds were white. I said sure. Her vision has improved greatly since her operation. She will have the other eye operated on sometime in the next few weeks.

I went to KWYN on Thursday to report on the city council meeting. That was a day late because I was with Pat on Wednesday.

Amy came to Wynne yesterday afternoon. She went to a local doctor. She had to miss two days of work. She came to the house about 6:00 pm and we took her out to dinner. At the local restaurant she met one of the local funeral home owners. They had a very good visit while we were waiting on our food. It was good to have her home for a short time. I just hate that her illness made the trip necessary. She said that several people for the funeral home had been ill the last few days.

Monday is a holiday for city employees. I hope the weather is good. I have a few projects that I need to work on around the house.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2009
8:45 AM

Tonight is the February meeting of the Wynne City Council. We have a long agenda, but most of the items are related to several resolutions for a grant for the Boys and Girls club.

Last night Pat and I attended the WBC Valentines banquet. The steak was excellent, as usual. You can not beat a good meal and a play for $10.00. The program was excellent. I am amazed at the talent at Wynne Baptist Church. Everyone appeared to enjoy the meal and the play. I think that every seat was taken. I think that the next two nights are also a sellout.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2009
1:00 PM

I attended the ceremony on Saturday for the two young men who saved lives because of their quick actions last week. The ceremony was well attended. Several local citizens spoke and I presented them with a special citation from the City of Wynne. It is always good to be a part of a very good story.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2009
3:51 PM

I have spend a good deal of time this week on a map for the 2010 census. There are about three areas that I need to add to the map. I have to draw the area on the map and list the Ordinance that was passed. We also have to submit a copy of the Ordinance. We are having trouble locating one of the ordinances. We should have this completed soon. It is very important to list all of the areas in the city. The city receives money based on our population. We need to make sure that the map they work from contains an accurate description.

The city council meets Tuesday night. We have a long agenda, but most of the items are related to a grant for the Boys and Girls Club of Cross County. We also have to pass a resolution relating to our new drug testing for non-CDL city employees and pass the small budgets for the city.

I sold our old trash containers to a man from Wynne. He is carrying them to Parkin and selling them for scrap. Scrap prices are low now. We have about 50 containers to be sold.

Pat has eye surgery on Wednesday of next week. I hope everything goes well.

I am still taking medicine for my cold. It is much better. The weather is also much better, in fact the temperature in Wynne is now 65 degrees.

Tomorrow I will present two young men a citation for their work in saving lives in a fire a few days ago. If they had not happened to be at that location and made the decision to aid, we would probably have had some deaths. One of the young men was injured, but appears that he will fully recover. Good news is always GREAT.

Sunday I plan to attend the ceremony for a young man who has earned his eagle scout rank. This is quite an accomplishment. Very few young scouts achieve this rank. I have given his parents a letter for him and a proclamation from me to become a part of his record of the high honor.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2009
1:25 PM

I spent most of the last two days in bed. I have had a sore throat and have been running a fever. I feel much better today. I have been at work all day, but have stayed close to the office. I did watch the Mississippi State and Ole Miss basketball game on Sat. State lost. I also watched the super bowl last night. I thought it was a very entertaining game.

The weather was good over the weekend. In fact yesterday afternoon I noticed that the temperature was 65 degrees. It is about 50 degrees now in Wynne.