Observations...

An underground leak in a downtown water main was discovered last week and city workers compute that it would come to about 10.5 million gallons of lost water per year. City workers Jack Bower and John Fasano were congratulated at Council meeting Tuesday night by Larry Parham, for repairing the leak late Friday evening after hours. No estimate as to how long the leak had been in existence…The Mayor of Tulsa is not a golfer. She wants to close 27 holes of city golf to save a nickel on a $561 million annual budget…Did you catch the winning quarter design for the State of Oklahoma? We think the voting was somehow rigged. Four different quarter designs received from 15-19,000 each, while the winning quarter of the scissortail bird received more than 76,000 votes. Oklahomans would never agree on anything by such a resounding majority so we think a computer voting system was somehow used…It hasn't been a month since the last city election and its campaign promises, but they've already gone by the board. Named to the Health Care Trust Authority by the city council Tuesday night were two councilmen (remember the campaign promises to appoint only ONE to a board); two campaign supporters of GrovePAC, and only one physician. But Oops! On Wednesday Mayor Bishop was enlightened that three of the appointees do not live inside the city limits and are thus ineligible for appointment, so Council will hold another special meeting Monday at 4:30 p.m. to rescind their appointments and make new ones...That makes three council meetings in a week's time...Mayor Gary Bishop seems to have easily slipped into his mayoral role and handles Council meetings quite nicely. He is as quick to gavel as he is to find a Bible verse, and shut down what could have turned ugly at the last council meeting, on remarks made by Seneca-Cayuga Chief Paul Spicer...Latest update from ODOT on the Highway 59 widening project: Contracts for the $9.6 million project to be let in January with actual construction work to start in Spring '08, asphalt surface, five lanes, curbs and gutters. Will take about 18 months to complete...The new policy on uniformed police officers at city council and trust authority meeting is this: No uniformed police inside the meeting room; uniformed police are to be "in close proximity" outside the room. Wonder what will happen when a Grove city police officer is named Employee of the Month. The new policy came down from Acting City Manager Debbie Mavity last week, at the request of the new council members. Does a uniform make some on the council nervous?
The newspaper headline says "March Sales Tax takes a Dip in Grove...Delaware County Shows Overall Increase." Fact Check: The period was Jan. 16-Feb. 15, not March, and what happened during this period? The biggest ice storm in many years. And in Delaware County sales tax collections were down by $7,516, not up...