It never seems to amaze me how many times the same idea resurfaces in the same place; I believe that there was a time when parents would get involved but with the direction the economy is going it seems that now it takes both parents working just to get by so that requires a town like ours to think outside of the box.

I spoke to the owner of this building and he told me that he had been approached by some people regarding this building for a youth center but they had disappeared as he had not heard from them for a year or so.

At the time I thought that a person should look toward the city developing a new department so that insurance, maintenance, security and oversight would be automatic.

I achieved what was in my power to achieve and the owner agreed to several changes and repairs to the building such as ceiling and floor repair as well as carrying insurance on the structure itself.

Unfortunately; the city decided to turn it over to the very people who had abandoned it a year or two before so nothing happened as it seems to be abandoned once again although they tell me that the building is out and they are marking time until they get a not for profit number from the State. Where that stands I have no idea but I believe that it is in the hands of Lydia Duncan and has been for two or three years.

I understand that there was a small fire in the building with minor damage but the building now needs some electric work and the owner is tired of the dragging on of this deal and told me some months ago that he would give me the building if I would repair it and start a youth program.

I actually thought about doing it as I can rewire the building fairly cheaply by getting volunteers but it appears that my name on anything where the city might be require causes a lot of anger among the good ol boy mentality and because I cannot vision a complete and continuous volunteer army of adults showing up to run such a venture in this day and age I decided to wait until a more favorable administration would be elected; but that does not seem to be in the writing following the last election. A city council that cannot visualize any way to improve Bicknell without raising the cost of living here starts off with a vision of failure and the last four years have proven that this council cannot provide proper planning or ideas that show understanding as to what is necessary to improve Bicknell.

Therefore I do not see the probability of a successful youth center developing anytime soon. I hope that I am wrong and that this council will turn and work to benefit Bicknell but alas the past tells a different story.

Example: no horses, penalizing people who want to purchase in Bicknell to rent homes, increasing the water rates, not utilizing campers in town to achieve a payoff of the existing sewer plant debt, spending money to re-plan downtown, bad streets and other rulings that simply benefit the council members themselves. This includes the horse ruling that was designed to remove a horse next to a council member’s mother’s house and a no parking street because the councilwoman does not want to have cars parked on her street.

The plus sign is that even though I have not spent a lot of time talking to him Terry Stremming has been elected to replace the horse hater councilman and he did tell me once that he was in favor of the campers in Bicknell to pay off the sewer plant. So I guess that it is possible to get the council to overturn some of the nonsense legislations that they have passed during the last 8 years. Who knows!

Thanks for your comments about the site and you will be seeing other changes as time passes as I intend to design the site to provide news and plans regarding Bicknell and I intend to get other people to include their thoughts as writers. I am also changing some of the code so that I can control more of the timing and placement of both comments and stories.
John R. Stanczak