As I sit here and write this, it is the first day of summer and is getting very hot.  I do hope that each and everybody here in our community watches out for your neighbors and friends, especially those who may not have air conditioning; that you may check on them just to make sure they are all right.  This is what makes small communities the very best to live in.

At the time I am writing this, the Indiana General Assembly is still working on a budget with a deadline of June 30.  I do not have anything to report on their work, I just hope that they can complete a biennial budget without taking anything from us.  You may already know by the time this newspaper comes out and you should have read it in our local paper on what has been completed.
The Summer Serenades Concert Series on the river this year should be great.  The concert series is free.  All you have to bring is a lawn chair and time to listen.  We do hope that there is some music that you all would like and are able to enjoy.

District 9 of The Indiana Homeland Security Department, of which we are a part, is putting together a District Planning Council with officials from each county that is part of District 9.  Each elected official will have an appointee to a district planning oversight committee.  With this we hope to create more of a group effort of planning for different emergency situations we might encounter.  This also ties in with our emergency services, and it will help with all of the red tape that you have to go through and to recover costs associated with an emergency situation.  I do hope to have more about this as time goes on.

A few weeks ago I received confirmation on the last part of the permits for which Grand Victoria applied for the expansion of the hotel.  I guess now we will see if that expansion will go forward.  I am still waiting for verification from the management in Chicago.  Hopefully, for our small community, the expansion of the hotel will progress.

We are still waiting on permits for the Phase 4 project on the riverfront which consists of an additional boat ramp and completing the last phase of erosion control of our riverfront.  Part of what we are waiting on is Kentucky’s SHPO report.  Once this report is completed showing the project will have no adverse effect to the community of Rabbit Hash, we should be able to start moving forward.

Once again, I will ask for everybody to keep our men and women in the armed services in their prayers and ask God to watch over our community and us with our daily struggles.

Mayor Bill Marksberry
City of Rising Sun