Columns

Just as the last refrains of “Auld Lang Syne” are sung each New Year’s Eve, a bevy of new laws descend upon us like a balloon drop from above. Some years the new laws seem to outnumber the balloons. This year it’s another close competition.

Supervisor Gore was kind enough to share his priorities for the coming legislative year. We’ve split his thoughts into two parts, check back next week for part two.

During this season of gratitude, toasts around the county include thanks for what was saved from the Kincade Fire.

This will not be the first Christmas where many U.S. soldiers will be stationed and on guard at military bases far from their homes and family. It was the case in 1776 at the Battle of Trenton, at Valley Forge the very next year and, right up to now, where 170,000 American military men and women are deployed on active duty at 800 military bases all around the world.

Wow, what a year! As things wind down and we are enjoying the holidays, I wanted to take a moment to share some of the actions we took as a council this year.

Happy Holidays. We hope you are enjoying this holiday season. With it comes the wet weather. 

We have enjoyed seeing so many of you lately as our community continues to work through our recovery from the emergency of late October and early November. We continue to stay positive, trying out new ideas every few months as we try to meet our community’s needs.

This has been a surreal Christmas season for me, because we still aren’t back in our house.

In just a few days a brand-new decade will dawn, full of promise and wonder. I was reviewing the last decade and because I still think 2003 was ten years ago, I sort of ended up reviewing two decades, instead. (Clearly math was not one of the skills I mastered in the last 20 years…).

By the quirk of this season’s holiday calendar, we recently made a visit to Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, while visiting family and friends in nearby Maryland. The visit offered us a chance to affirm that our Republic, in all its manifestations of power, laws and democratic institutions was still standing in upright position and not collapsing under the weight of the current impeachment turmoil. After listening for a week as our highest elected officials ranted, raved and foamed at their mouths during the Congressional hearings, we half expected to see the U.S. Capitol’s dome smoldering in black smoke.