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04/24/2003 Archived Entry: "Jumping and Singing and assorted things on a Thursday morning."

JUMPING AND SINGING AND ASSORTED THINGS ON A THURSDAY MORNING

Number Three Grandson is going to be running and jumping in Russell today at a track meet for middle school folk, if it doesn't get rained out. I'm going as I haven't yet seen him do either this spring. And spring is what I hope he does....lift himself right off the ground and soar over that bar. Aim for a school record. Shades of Javier Sotomayor. 2.45 meters. 8.038058 feet. When Javier was 15 he cleared 6.56168. I find that just amazing.

It's always fun and interesting to see all the middle school kids perform then go into high school and learn more about what competition means. High jump is one of my favoite field events so I find it enjoyable at any level of proficiency. Ballet in motion, sometimes.

I didn't understand the newspaper account regarding district budget information where it said "The music program remains intact." Then later in the article it said Ellsworth had three music teachers (when we have had four) and 37 coaches. Russell, at the top of the heap in the NCAA, has four music teachers and 48 coaches. Maybe I don't understand the word "intact".

I am happy that rumors were dispelled about the disrict vehicles. It doesn't help anything to hear it repeated that the school district bought a $60,000 suburban so that the coaches can use that instead of riding to out of town sports events with the team. Not so. Everytime it circulates it has to be dispelled.

I can't imagine anyone believing we'd send board members out of the country to meetings. That makes no sense at all, but I suppose there are a few who would believe almost anything. It's essential that board members and administrators attend meetings along with other school board members and state education leaders in order to stay informed. By not attending and not staying well informed, one courts problems, some potentially serious, that could be avoided.

The board and administration do an excellent job of staying on top of things and they should be commended more frequently for their diligence and hard work. That doesn't mean we should shirk at the opportunity to express objection if we disagree with some of their decisions and the way they handle some matters. We can still stive for common goals of improvement while trying to iron out differences of how those goals are achieved. At least we should be able to do that. We should do that. Patrons should be active participants and informed.

I recently visited with a friend from WaKeeney who told me they have 79 seniors and 11 in kindergarten. They have a critical situation, which is the trend in our rural communities. If you don't have students, you can't maintain a school. The same can happen to us as we, too, are experiencing declining enrollments. If Salina has its way, they would swallow us all up. The day may come when we are down to too few students that transporting our children to Salina to school might become an option. I hope I never live to see it. I hope people circle the wagons and do something to make our community stronger before then. We're operating on borrow time.

So, what do we do about it? We must attract people to live here, one way or another. Maybe we need to establish some kind of incentive program to encourage people, who are commuting here to work, to move here. It would be a great beginning if everyone who works here also lived here. And it would be wonderful if everyone who finds it necessary to commute elsewhere to find satisfactory work, could find work here.

We also need a city owned broadband internet and cable service, in my opinion. We need to maintain quality of life standards that are absolutely necessary to attract people to small communities. People aren't going to move here from larger communities and settle for a lot less than they are accustomed to. And the trend is continuing that people are leaving our communities and not coming back. They aren't going to move here just because we have a glut of housing. We have to reverse that flow somehow, someway before it is too late. The town can become septic overnight and then it will be too late to do anything about it. We have to stop the bleeding....now.

I just got the word. The track meet was cancelled because of rain. Now let it rain.

Mark Roehrman, owner of the Antique Mall, said he conducted about 60 people through the underground and Masonic Lodge during the Spring Gather. I was one of those as I was interested in seeing how much he had accomplished since the last time I was there. He has it all cleaned and ready for renovation when the time comes. There was a lot of "stuff" to haul out of there and it looked to me like it would take months, but Mark moves slowly and methodically and in no time at all, it was once again empty. It will be a show piece when it is completed.

The coffee area is showing progress too. His mom has painted tiles for the walls to match the tiles on the tables and chairs. It's going to be very classy. A large cabinet will be built for the south wall to match the others along that wall. I'm ready for the coffee makers to arrive!

I just saw the pajamas. Two pair, exactly as he wanted, stylish and classy. Perfect. I understand he found them at Dillard's.

The high school track meet in Sterling, scheduled for 3:00 today, hasn't been called because of rain, but it looks dark off in that direction. I'd like to see Grandson Number Two jump. The middle school track meet has been rescheduled for tomorrow in Russell, 1:00.