Board of Aldermen 04-09-2019 Page 33
an age just because of the age. Like when you drink a beer, your choosing to drink the beverage but you’re
not choosing when you get drunk or how drunk you are; that’s just happening as a chemical process. So |
felt the need to point that out but there was never really an opening for it.
The second thing is just reminding my constituents, many of whom have seen me repeatedly posting about
it. I’m going to be in Honduras next week from Wednesday to the following Wednesday. | will still try to
attend meetings remotely if possible but it’s a third world country and internet is pretty spotty. I’m looking
forward to it; it’s an opportunity to see people that I’ve been working with for years trying to help them
empower their community; build their businesses up and their own opportunities. And it’s not very far away
from where many people are fleeing from that has been of obvious public concern and has been
represented in the news. So there’s many ways to do things, sometimes you can trust the government to
do it; sometimes you just have to go do it.
The next thing is volunteer day, | was going to mention that but Shoshanna Kelly kind of beat me to it.
Great American Downtown has one scheduled for this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and there have been a
number of people cleaning up the trail ever since the snow left. So | want to thank everybody who has been
doing that. | know the Rough Riders were out doing a section over by Palm Square, so do not litter there.
And | wanted to also thank Mayor Donchess and Director Fauteux; residents have been asking for garbage
cans on the Heritage Rail Trail and on the Library Walk for some time. We received confirmation that
garbage cans will be placed there, hopefully in time for the clean-up. So | am very grateful for that.
Alderman Klee
I’d like to address a couple things. First off my re-referring, | hope you didn’t take that personal in any way |
really do feel that some of the things that were coming through that came through in that e-mail, | do have
some concerns about that and | would like the Committee to address that. But | also want to clarify
something that | heard the public state and | mean no disrespect to anybody who said that. But | don’t
believe for one second that that Bill in any way is an attack on businesses; | believe that it was done in
good faith and with good heart. So anyone who feels that anybody was trying to, regardless of how they
vote, | don’t believe anybody on this Committee would attack businesses, | think they are very pro-business
and | want to get that out to be very clear.
In reference to potholes, | will agree with what Alderman Jette. | personally have put in and it was taken
care, but | ask my constituents when they call me to complain about a pothole to use that DW/PRequest. |
get back great feedback, within a day, two days, that pothole has been filled. So | want to commend DPW
on that very thing.
As far as bears are concerned, they are not just in the south. | live on the outskirts of Greeley Park and the
bears are out and about and baby bears are coming out at this time too. So | am going to ask all members,
all citizens of this, you see it, it’s fine, take a picture from a distance, do not chase after it because they are
more afraid of you than you are of them and they will probably go into a crowd, get hurt and we already
know what happened to a bear just within a couple of years ago. So if you really do love animals, leave
them alone. Thank you.
Alderman Lopez
I’m sorry | needed a second turn because | forgot something. | wanted to congratulate Alderman O’Brien for
his presiding over us tonight, it was not an easy meeting and | appreciate the way you handled the public
comment. There were a lot of people with things to say and | feel like you gave them a good chance but
you were also pretty fair to the overall agenda.
Vice President O’Brien
Thank you sir. Thank you.
