CITY CORNER by Mayor Brent Hinckley

     It always seems that as spring begins to add color to our landscapes with the wildflowers and budding trees, the local calendar also becomes much more active with special events and fundraisers.  With multiple concerts, activities and dinners it is sometimes hard to choose which to attend and support, and while all of them are important to the complete and vital community we want, it is a challenge to fill our calendars with all of the opportunities.  The City has its own meetings that we schedule to take care of the business of our local government, and next Monday, March 25 we will have our regular City Council meeting for this month.  We delayed it a week to allow for spring break and to provide time to assemble all of the information and documents for a complete meeting, and now we have quite a number of issues to consider and take action on.  If you  are interested in seeing how and why your municipal government makes decisions, we invite you to come next Monday to the Eckert Civic Center at 5:30 in the evening to listen and share your thoughts. 

     The agenda for that meeting will include decisions relative to the Commissioner elections in May, approval of a Bank Depository for City funds, and consideration of the Investment Policy of the City as well as a Quarterly Investment Report.  The City staff is also recommending that we approve the purchase of a new accounting software package to replace the current system that has created a number of challenges as they handle the bookkeeping and payments to maintain our budgeted revenue and expenses.  We will need to consider a couple of personnel issues as well as several other possible topics relevant to the major projects we currently have in planning stages.  We will also have a further discussion regarding utility agreements for residential rental properties, which we began at the last meeting, so that we can begin to incorporate issues that were brought up by the local landlords and still work toward protecting the City from significant unpaid utility bills.  As you can see there is a wide variety of topics and issues that the City Council has to deal with regularly, and this next meeting is going to have a number of decisions and discussions as well as a few other issues that are still being formulated.  Everyone in the public is welcome and we encourage you to come and participate so that we can truly represent our community in all our actions. 

      The following Monday, on April 1, the City Council along with the Planning and Zoning Commission and a number of interested residents will meet again to continue the discussion regarding the ways in which we would like to see Mason grow and improve.  We have received a number of responses to our request for answers to the four proposed questions that can guide our discussion, and at that meeting we will work towards some summarization of the results and begin to see how best to describe our community vision.  I had thought three weeks ago at our last workshop that we might discuss some of the summary information at our March 25 City Council meeting, however with the very full agenda that we now have for that meeting I believe it would be in the best interest of clarity and full discussion that we delay for a week and consider all of the responses at that workshop.  If you are interested in participating in the discussion about the future of Mason and how we see that unfolding in regards to Ordinances and regulations, we invite you to come to this workshop on April 1 at 5:30 at the Eckert Civic Center.  This is an ongoing process, but each step of the way is important and depends on the input and suggestions of our residents and community.

    As spring progresses, we at the City are working hard to keep up with the many projects and issues that are before us.  We encourage everyone to be involved in whatever way will best express your interests, and if you have any thoughts or opinions that you would like to share please feel free to visit with one of the local elected officials.  Our community is a great place to raise children, live quietly and enjoy the surroundings of a rural town, but it will continue to improve and grow best if each of us participates and shares in the shaping of our future.  Mason is a great hometown, and working together we will make it even a little better.