From the Mayor’s Desk:

Last week brought the annual city-wide clean up. Fortunately the weather cooperated and many of you had a chance to dig out and pile up on the corner all that extra stuff, so that our trash service could pick it up for you. Driving through town last week, many of you took advantage of this service we provided and for that I thank you. For those of you who didn’t have the chance to pile your valuables out on the curb, we will have another cleanup this fall, although our trash service is very generous to us and will haul some extra stuff off on your weekly trash day. Another great reason for small town living.

Believe you me if you lived in the city you would be limited to the number of bags, what kind and color of trash bag that you could use, and very strict about what they will and will not accept for pick up.

I had several phone calls Sunday morning because of the city-wide power outage. Believe me when I say that our city crew was on top of it and worked hours getting our power back on. We were very fortunate to have Roger at the power plant, along with Kenny Fales, Scott Widner and Gary Hamilton. These guys went above and beyond their civic duty to help us all out. Can I say more about small town living.

Believe me when I say our home was probably the first to go off and I know I was the last one to have power back on. So I know the inconvenience to all of us, but nature takes its course, strange things happen, so a few hours of no power isn’t convenient, but I was very thankful and grateful that with Gallatin’s junior-senior prom Saturday night and lock-in following that our power outage was contained to the power plant, and not any of our precious youth in an accident or hitting a pole somewhere to cause our outage.

Sometimes one needs to count our blessings and be thankful instead of being upset over an inconvenience. I’m very proud of our school, students, and all those organizers and helpers in making the Gallatin prom a safe and memorable experience for all of them.

Our city crews have been busy filling pot holes and gearing up to start street work. We have several streets in town on the resurfacing list for this year. So please be patient and let the guys do their work. We’re all in this together. And when I turn my light switch on I want to thank all of those who went above and beyond.

Until next time,

Barb Ballew, mayor