CITY CORNER by Mayor Brent Hinckley

     A week ago the City Commission held a rather crowded meeting on Monday night, and after much discussion decided to approve the concept of a City owned and operated landfill. The motion that was approved provided for our consulting engineers to present some plans and designs that will provide a larger initial portion of the permitted area to be used for trash disposal, and some additional ideas that will save the City and its residents millions of dollars through the years and provide for future generations. There are still a number of specific designs that need to be worked out in detail, so we do not have complete numbers at this time, but this was a very wise decision in the process we have been working through. I want to express my sincere thanks to all of the citizens who shared their thoughts and concerns during the meeting, the many other citizens who showed up for both recent meetings to be supportive but did not get a chance to say anything, to Gerry Gamel for writing clear and accurate articles about the meetings, and most importantly “thank you” to the City Commissioners, volunteers and staff who spent countless hours working through the many issues and numbers to come to a conclusion that will improve our community. I will keep you informed of our continuing work and decision as we take further steps to meet the needs of our town and a County.
     One of the challenges of writing this column is that it is due on Mondays before 5:00 which leaves me with times that I cannot immediately report news that is important but happens after that deadline but before the paper actually is in your mailbox. The landfill discussions and decisions are a good example of my “catch up” writing that seems to be a bit late. Another issue is that if I have a conflict on Monday there may be complications in getting a column in for that week’s paper. That is the problem today and leaves me writing on my iPad while I am drinking coffee before even getting to the City office. This column will be short, but for the next few weeks I may not be able to get one written at all. This morning I have a couple of pre-op appointments in Fredericksburg, but next Monday I am scheduled for a total knee replacement and so I am pretty sure I will not get a chance to write anything that day. For the following weeks I will be struggling to get “back on my feet” figuratively and physically so I hope you will excuse me if I miss a few columns. The City of course will keep on functioning, and with the capable Administrator and staff that we have, as well as the other four elected officials, I am not sure I will even be much missed, but I did want to let you know why I am not writing for the paper for a short while.  Mason is a great hometown, and the people who work together to keep the City functioning are very much like a large extended family, we may not always agree but when one person is down everyone else works a little harder to keep everything functioning on a productive level.  I am very glad to live is such a wonderful community, and as we continue to work together I hope that you too will help to keep Mason improving and progressing for the benefit of all of us.