This has been quite a year:
Nearly nobody at the NLC outside of Indiana knew anything about Bluffton, Indiana, so I told them about one of our former residents.
You may have heard this account before, but there are some valuable lessons to be learned here.
One summer day in 1891, Mayor Martin Walbert boarded a train car and set out on what would be the better part of a day's journey out of town.
As Martin left the city, he must have wondered what the future would hold for his community. Abroad, the European economy was weak and already in a recession. The U.S. was less than 2 years from its deepest-ever depression; at home, the public was clamoring for an end to the open ditch (called Pickett's Run) carrying human and animal waste along the south side of his city and into the Wabash river. They demanded that new streets be constructed to replace the muddy ones, but their demands exceeded their ability to pay for them.
Martin's successor would bluntly describe the city's finances as follows: "The city treasurer files his final report, [showing] ... the general fund overdrawn. This of course is occasioned by the extensive street improvements ... and when we consider the extent of these improvements we are only surprised that the treasury is in as good condition as it now is."
The citizenry was still restless over the immigrants-the Germans-who did not speak the language and yet, they said, took jobs away from the locals. And the Irish, who — while speaking their own brand of English — were reputed to drink, avoid work and take advantage of law-abiding citizens.
Then there was the crime problem:
In those days when communication was slow at best, horse thieves and swindlers found it easy to slither into the city, commit their criminal acts, and blow town. Maybe there was a shyster or two on this very train with the mayor.
In a rare quiet moment as the train tracks clacked below him, it is not difficult to know what Martin was feeling:
Elsewhere in the United States, other officials were seeking one another out for similar reasons. Soon, other state associations began forming. In the 1920s, his state association joined others to form a larger group which eventually became the National League of Cities.
You see, Bluffton was there from the beginning.
Martin Walbert could not have known how his train trip that day would take him to the genesis of the oldest and largest association of cities in the nation; he could not have known that 120 years later, the national debate would still be centered around environmental, transportation, immigration and how to pay for it all.
He did know, however, that he and his peers faced problems and opportunities that transcended his arena and sharing ideas and information was the best strategy for dealing with those issues.
They also knew that by speaking with one loud voice they could make things happen. (One of their first big lobbying successes was obtaining free use of the newfangled telephone service for police business.)
Let me stop here and note that the city's finances are not in distress as they were 100 years ago. We have been reducing staff for years; our hard-working city employees have seen a single 2% raise over the past four budget years, and every once in a while, we get a little lucky. Since January, we have used 100 tons less road salt than the same time last year.
This has led us again to the lowest city tax rate of any county seat city in the area:
1. Decatur: 0.94
11. Portland: 1.27
111. Fort Wayne: 1.32
IV. Hartford City: 1.35
v. Marion: 1.65
VI. Huntington: 2.30
V11. Bluffton: 0.65
These tight budgets and state-imposed maximums come with some discomfort, however. The Bluffton Fire Department has an annual operating (not capital) budget of about $900,000. It makes 1/3 of its runs outside the city, mostly into Lancaster and Harrison Townships. Lancaster and Harrison Townships combined contribute a total of less than 9% of the costs while incurring 33% of the runs.
Put another way: If you live within the city, you are paying about 24 cents of your property tax rate for fire protection. If you live in rural Lancaster or Harrison Townships, you are paying about a 4 cent rate.
This practice of city taxpayers subsidizing rural taxpayers simply cannot be sustained.
We have had lengthy discussions with the townships, but even though a workable remedy is provided by state law, neither one has adopted it. Without a solution, at the beginning in 2013, fire protection in the outlying townships will be provided by a department or departments other than Bluffton. This includes North Oaks, River Terrace, Bluffton Motor Works and Bi-County Services to name a few.
This is where some Martin-Walbert-style cooperation could come in handy. A good example of how that cooperation can work is through our county-wide economic development organization. While it may need a little tweaking every once in a while, it is evidence that when we work together, great things can happen.
Times are tough for both business and government as we sort out "the new normal." It will take creative thinking.
We had the downtown experts from Hyett-Palma in last fall. It had been almost a decade since they had been in town and they were pleased with the fact that we had followed most of their recommendations from the time before. In the intervening years, however, a recession had changed the complexion of our downtown.
After they had done the field work and before their report was issued, the Hideaway burned and is now the subject of an unsafe building evaluation.
One of the recommendations that they made was that we consider a not-for-profit corporation to strategically purchase some of the downtown buildings. It's an idea worth serious consideration.
About the same time and just blocks from the train station where Martin Walbert boarded the train, Lewis Scott and his wife were starting a family. They named their baby boy Lewis Everett Scott, after his father, but they called him "Everett."
As a kid growing up, Everett just wanted to play baseball. When the scrawny kid graduated from high school in 1909, the Red Sox took a chance on him, and then the Yankees.
It was an era when players regularly sharpened the spikes on their shoes and were not afraid to use them to cut into the legs of middle infielders when sliding into a base. Over his career, Everett endured the punishment of playing with Injury.
Everett Scott was a respectable, but never great hitter. He played shortstop well, however. And he was there every day — even when his legs bore deep cuts and once when an eye injury rendered him almost blind.
He was there-contributing to the team's work for a record 1,307 consecutive games that included 27 World Series games.
That record would only be broken by Lou Gehrig and then by Cal Ripken, Jr.
Everett Scott still holds the third spot on the all-time list of consecutive games played.
Times have changed since Martin Walbert was mayor and Everett Scott played on the streets of Bluffton, Indiana.
A century later, all of us find ourselves with challenges centered on old themes. For Martin, the problem was stolen horses;
Today, we face a new kind of thievery by those who would steal our children's minds. I'm talking about K2, "spice," or the same compound known by a hundred other names. In some forms it is legal, but it can be harmful to those who use it.
Bluffton High School Steve Baker recorded a Youtube video for the News-Banner in which he told what he was seeing. It is a high-profit item and the few retailers who sell it know exactly what they're selling. Mr. Baker tells of students whose lives were put in danger by this substance and calls for a boycott of those few merchants and I agree.
If you want to know who they are, just ask any high school student.
But no matter what the challenge, we need to emulate Martin Walbert and company's approach:
Their focus was on criminal behavior, with escape of the criminal made easier by the advent of the railroad. Whereas the horse-and-buggy solution would have been to run the criminal down on horseback, when the definition of the problem became: Not how do we catch him from behind, but how do we get ahead of him, the solution — the telephone — became obvious.
The solution was found by a combined effort of people daring to think differently. Such is our challenge today.
The next time you visit a first-grade classroom, look around and note how different it looks from when you were small enough to fit behind one of those little desks. Those children are learning and processing information differently than their parents or grandparents.
It is much more than the technology they use. It is that the succeeding generations think differently than their predecessors. The median age in the United States is 37. That means that half of the people in our community are younger than 37. The youngest of the baby-boomers is 47.
As community leaders, we are called to prepare the next generation for the uncharted roads that lie before them. How do we do it? We do it by staying true to who we are.
Eight days ago, I had the honor of being with the President of the United States in the Oval Office. He asked: "Tell me about Bluffton."
I told him many things, and high on the list was that we are an optimistic people and also a hard-working people.
I didn't tell him this, but I'll tell you. Our success as a community will be gained by seeking out new ideas like Martin Walbert and being in the game every day, like Everett Scott.
One more thing ...
Babe Ruth and Everett Scott roomed together for five years on the road. 1. It really didn't matter how many home runs Babe Ruth hit in a game unless Everett Scott was in the infield, throwing opposing runners out one by one, day in and day out.
If we are to build a thriving community, we must be in the game, giving it our best every day.
We spoke about that first-grade classroom that looks very different today than it did decades ago; however, there is one thing that is the same: the wide-eyed expressions of wonder and hope on the faces of the six-year-olds sitting there and who — in what will seem like an instant — will be leading this city that we hold so dearly. We owe them a city of opportunity, leadership and good governance.
We will do it — -not with our Babe Ruth-style home runs — but with our Everett Scott-style tenacity.
Shortly before he was assassinated, Senator Robert Kennedy reminded us that:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
... and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this-and their generation. "
Thank you
- We are slogging away on the much-delayed west side Adams Street Industrial corridor project, hoping for a July bid letting;
- We have started acquisition of right-of-way for the InterUrban trail.
- The plans are drawn and, once the right-of-way is in hand, we'll be ready to bid it out.
- We received the Frank O'Bannon Sunshine Award from the
- Hoosier State Press Association, recognizing transparency in
- government;
Nearly nobody at the NLC outside of Indiana knew anything about Bluffton, Indiana, so I told them about one of our former residents.
You may have heard this account before, but there are some valuable lessons to be learned here.
One summer day in 1891, Mayor Martin Walbert boarded a train car and set out on what would be the better part of a day's journey out of town.
As Martin left the city, he must have wondered what the future would hold for his community. Abroad, the European economy was weak and already in a recession. The U.S. was less than 2 years from its deepest-ever depression; at home, the public was clamoring for an end to the open ditch (called Pickett's Run) carrying human and animal waste along the south side of his city and into the Wabash river. They demanded that new streets be constructed to replace the muddy ones, but their demands exceeded their ability to pay for them.
Martin's successor would bluntly describe the city's finances as follows: "The city treasurer files his final report, [showing] ... the general fund overdrawn. This of course is occasioned by the extensive street improvements ... and when we consider the extent of these improvements we are only surprised that the treasury is in as good condition as it now is."
The citizenry was still restless over the immigrants-the Germans-who did not speak the language and yet, they said, took jobs away from the locals. And the Irish, who — while speaking their own brand of English — were reputed to drink, avoid work and take advantage of law-abiding citizens.
Then there was the crime problem:
In those days when communication was slow at best, horse thieves and swindlers found it easy to slither into the city, commit their criminal acts, and blow town. Maybe there was a shyster or two on this very train with the mayor.
In a rare quiet moment as the train tracks clacked below him, it is not difficult to know what Martin was feeling:
- Seemingly insurmountable problems;
- Little money to fix them; and
- Constituents or customers demanding more than they are willing to pay for.
Elsewhere in the United States, other officials were seeking one another out for similar reasons. Soon, other state associations began forming. In the 1920s, his state association joined others to form a larger group which eventually became the National League of Cities.
You see, Bluffton was there from the beginning.
Martin Walbert could not have known how his train trip that day would take him to the genesis of the oldest and largest association of cities in the nation; he could not have known that 120 years later, the national debate would still be centered around environmental, transportation, immigration and how to pay for it all.
He did know, however, that he and his peers faced problems and opportunities that transcended his arena and sharing ideas and information was the best strategy for dealing with those issues.
They also knew that by speaking with one loud voice they could make things happen. (One of their first big lobbying successes was obtaining free use of the newfangled telephone service for police business.)
Let me stop here and note that the city's finances are not in distress as they were 100 years ago. We have been reducing staff for years; our hard-working city employees have seen a single 2% raise over the past four budget years, and every once in a while, we get a little lucky. Since January, we have used 100 tons less road salt than the same time last year.
This has led us again to the lowest city tax rate of any county seat city in the area:
1. Decatur: 0.94
11. Portland: 1.27
111. Fort Wayne: 1.32
IV. Hartford City: 1.35
v. Marion: 1.65
VI. Huntington: 2.30
V11. Bluffton: 0.65
These tight budgets and state-imposed maximums come with some discomfort, however. The Bluffton Fire Department has an annual operating (not capital) budget of about $900,000. It makes 1/3 of its runs outside the city, mostly into Lancaster and Harrison Townships. Lancaster and Harrison Townships combined contribute a total of less than 9% of the costs while incurring 33% of the runs.
Put another way: If you live within the city, you are paying about 24 cents of your property tax rate for fire protection. If you live in rural Lancaster or Harrison Townships, you are paying about a 4 cent rate.
This practice of city taxpayers subsidizing rural taxpayers simply cannot be sustained.
We have had lengthy discussions with the townships, but even though a workable remedy is provided by state law, neither one has adopted it. Without a solution, at the beginning in 2013, fire protection in the outlying townships will be provided by a department or departments other than Bluffton. This includes North Oaks, River Terrace, Bluffton Motor Works and Bi-County Services to name a few.
This is where some Martin-Walbert-style cooperation could come in handy. A good example of how that cooperation can work is through our county-wide economic development organization. While it may need a little tweaking every once in a while, it is evidence that when we work together, great things can happen.
Times are tough for both business and government as we sort out "the new normal." It will take creative thinking.
We had the downtown experts from Hyett-Palma in last fall. It had been almost a decade since they had been in town and they were pleased with the fact that we had followed most of their recommendations from the time before. In the intervening years, however, a recession had changed the complexion of our downtown.
After they had done the field work and before their report was issued, the Hideaway burned and is now the subject of an unsafe building evaluation.
One of the recommendations that they made was that we consider a not-for-profit corporation to strategically purchase some of the downtown buildings. It's an idea worth serious consideration.
About the same time and just blocks from the train station where Martin Walbert boarded the train, Lewis Scott and his wife were starting a family. They named their baby boy Lewis Everett Scott, after his father, but they called him "Everett."
As a kid growing up, Everett just wanted to play baseball. When the scrawny kid graduated from high school in 1909, the Red Sox took a chance on him, and then the Yankees.
It was an era when players regularly sharpened the spikes on their shoes and were not afraid to use them to cut into the legs of middle infielders when sliding into a base. Over his career, Everett endured the punishment of playing with Injury.
Everett Scott was a respectable, but never great hitter. He played shortstop well, however. And he was there every day — even when his legs bore deep cuts and once when an eye injury rendered him almost blind.
He was there-contributing to the team's work for a record 1,307 consecutive games that included 27 World Series games.
That record would only be broken by Lou Gehrig and then by Cal Ripken, Jr.
Everett Scott still holds the third spot on the all-time list of consecutive games played.
Times have changed since Martin Walbert was mayor and Everett Scott played on the streets of Bluffton, Indiana.
A century later, all of us find ourselves with challenges centered on old themes. For Martin, the problem was stolen horses;
Today, we face a new kind of thievery by those who would steal our children's minds. I'm talking about K2, "spice," or the same compound known by a hundred other names. In some forms it is legal, but it can be harmful to those who use it.
Bluffton High School Steve Baker recorded a Youtube video for the News-Banner in which he told what he was seeing. It is a high-profit item and the few retailers who sell it know exactly what they're selling. Mr. Baker tells of students whose lives were put in danger by this substance and calls for a boycott of those few merchants and I agree.
If you want to know who they are, just ask any high school student.
But no matter what the challenge, we need to emulate Martin Walbert and company's approach:
Their focus was on criminal behavior, with escape of the criminal made easier by the advent of the railroad. Whereas the horse-and-buggy solution would have been to run the criminal down on horseback, when the definition of the problem became: Not how do we catch him from behind, but how do we get ahead of him, the solution — the telephone — became obvious.
The solution was found by a combined effort of people daring to think differently. Such is our challenge today.
The next time you visit a first-grade classroom, look around and note how different it looks from when you were small enough to fit behind one of those little desks. Those children are learning and processing information differently than their parents or grandparents.
It is much more than the technology they use. It is that the succeeding generations think differently than their predecessors. The median age in the United States is 37. That means that half of the people in our community are younger than 37. The youngest of the baby-boomers is 47.
As community leaders, we are called to prepare the next generation for the uncharted roads that lie before them. How do we do it? We do it by staying true to who we are.
Eight days ago, I had the honor of being with the President of the United States in the Oval Office. He asked: "Tell me about Bluffton."
I told him many things, and high on the list was that we are an optimistic people and also a hard-working people.
I didn't tell him this, but I'll tell you. Our success as a community will be gained by seeking out new ideas like Martin Walbert and being in the game every day, like Everett Scott.
One more thing ...
Babe Ruth and Everett Scott roomed together for five years on the road. 1. It really didn't matter how many home runs Babe Ruth hit in a game unless Everett Scott was in the infield, throwing opposing runners out one by one, day in and day out.
If we are to build a thriving community, we must be in the game, giving it our best every day.
We spoke about that first-grade classroom that looks very different today than it did decades ago; however, there is one thing that is the same: the wide-eyed expressions of wonder and hope on the faces of the six-year-olds sitting there and who — in what will seem like an instant — will be leading this city that we hold so dearly. We owe them a city of opportunity, leadership and good governance.
We will do it — -not with our Babe Ruth-style home runs — but with our Everett Scott-style tenacity.
Shortly before he was assassinated, Senator Robert Kennedy reminded us that:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
... and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this-and their generation. "
Thank you
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