Garden County Nebraska

GardenCoNe.com

Oshkosh, Lewellen, Lisco

Mayor: Cynthia S. Talley 305 West 1st Street, Oshkosh NE 69154 Phone: (308) 772-3686 email CTalley@gardencone.com

March, 2007

From the Hall

Making a difference is a different melody for everyone who hears the song. It happens in different ways all the time. It has no age limits. It can be done by young and old. I believe that people sometimes feel they don't make a difference, but they do in ways they don't even see matter.

In the past few months, here are some of the things people have done that have an impact on our community. I have watched our neighbors and friends host Easter egg hunts and Santa coming to town, scoop sidewalks for older folks down the street, give kids a ride to school on cold morning, buy an old, neglected, rundown house and turn it into the cutest cottage that people want to live in, tear a house down that is a caving in safety hazard and recycle the wood into a new use, write a grant for handicapped doors for the auditorium, clean up their yard and house to make their neighborhood a place to be proud of, hold a young person accountable for something they had done and to organize a great renovation project that bring in tens of thousands of dollars in weeks to restore a community centerpiece to a state even better than it's former glory.

I have been waiting for the peak of the auditorium renovation project to write a great symphony singing its tale, but every time I think we have reached the top of the mountain, it moves even higher. I can wait no longer to write about the great things that are happening in our community. In a matter of weeks, the auditorium renovation committee has raised tens of thousands of dollars with your help to make the auditorium once again a place to be proud of. We have seen high school students, adults, young kids, alumni who no longer live in the area and contractors all work toward the same goal.

I have been asked to share with you our city budget so that you will know what we are trying to balance as a city. These are our income and expenses to March 31, 2007 per department:

We have talked over the past months about the goal of having each department balance. In some department, great strides are being made. The library contributes to it's wellbeing through the Friends of the Library. Friends recently completed a significant addition to the library with funds they raised. Alan Sanford has worked very hard this past year to increase his outside funding for the park and ball department. We tried to implement some new ideas last summer to help the pool budget, which did not receive the support or effort I had hoped for. Granted, some departments will never be self-supporting and I accept that, but I believe we can do things to lessen the burden to the city and still have those amenities that enhance our lives such as the ball program, the library and the pool. The auditorium renovation group has shown us what our community can do when it works together. It just takes everyone doing a little.

I remind you as I always do, this is our town. It will be what we make it.

Your mayor.

Cindee Talley