Troy Zoning Board of Appeals - July 2014 Meeting Recap

City staff has posted the video recording of the 7/15/14 Troy Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to YouTube. At the bottom of this post is the video. (As you'll quickly notice, I was not in attendance at this meeting.)

Click here to download the entire Agenda Packet from the July 15th meeting.

An Officer and a Gentleman

Sorry, but I'm a little late on this post. I meant to say an officer and a thespian.

As I've mentioned on here previously, our son has been involved in three musicals during his time at Troy Athens High School. To recognize his involvement, Alex was inducted on 6/2/14 into the International Thespian Society. More specifically, Athens' Troupe 3729. To tell you the truth, before Alex got involved in theater at Athens, I never knew such an organization existed. Congratulations to Alex and the other inductees!

Well, that's the thespian reference in this blog post. Now for the officer part. On that same June evening, Alex was selected to serve as treasurer of the Athens Theatre Company! Click here to view the list of the incoming officers.

Congratulations to Alex and the other 2014-15 Officers!

I'm glad Alex has decided to be involved in extracurricular activities at Athens. I was never that involved and now look back with regret on missing out on those other aspects of high school life. Academics are very important but so are the other activities (music, sports, etc) that are available for students.

Troy Roads Rolling in 2014

Image via City of Troy

If you haven't seen it yet, take a look at the video at the bottom of this post from the 5/19/14 Troy City Council on the Troy Roads Rock program. It's very informative and demonstrates how different levels of government (City, County, and State) can work together to improve our local roads.

Now if we could just get Republicans and Democrats in the Michigan Legislature to find common ground on funding long-term improvements to our State's infrastructure. It seems logical that a fuel tax increase is needed if it's coupled with other reforms to the way we build and maintain our infrastructure. Even a traditionally "conservative" organization like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce supports increasing state and local investment in roads and public transportation by at least $1.6 billion per year.

When it comes to funding reforms and budgetary re-prioritization, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has made a number of worthwhile suggestions that a long-term solution should also include.