Mayor’s Office

Message from the Mayor #8

Well, fall is almost here and I for one am a little relieved that the weather is cooling off somewhat. It was a long, hot summer but things won’t be cooling off much when it comes working on our streets and roads. First, after a lot of preparation and training, we are about to get our pothole machine up and running. This should be the answer to keeping our potholes filled up. In addition to that, there will be several places in town that we will be paving over the next month or so. But let’s not stop there. Starting sometime the first of November, the 45 West By-Pass will be also be paved from the gas company to the John Deere dealership. All this has taken several months to get set up but I feel smoother roads are in our future.

Also, with the coming of fall, the leaves will start gathering on the ground. While the leaf machine will not start running until November the 1^st, for the time being, you can bag any leaves you would like to get rid of and our street trucks will pick them up. After November 1^st, you can rake them to the street and the leaf truck get them there.

Speaking of street trucks, because there is so many tasks for the Public Works Department to cover, you probably will only see street trucks pass your house on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. On Tuesday and Thursdays, they have ditches, storm drains and flower beds to clean out. They have limbs to pick up, sidewalks to take care of, city vehicles to maintain, weeds to spray and grass to cut. Occasionally, they have drains to put in or other chores so they are very busy and overstretched. I know you can understand if they don’t get your street pickup every day.

We are in the process of raising the legal age to purchase, possess, explode and ignite fireworks in the City of Trenton to 18 years of age. The reason for this is because the largest problem we had during the 4^th of July holiday were groups of 15 to 17 year olds roaming through the city with backpacks full of fireworks shooting at vehicles, other people, police officers and themselves. That behavior will not be tolerated and we will do all we can to put a stop to it. That kind of behavior will eventually put a ban on all fireworks in the city, which I am sure many people would like to see. The City Council and I want to allow residents to enjoy all the aspects of the holiday but a few can ruin it for everyone. While the raising of the age limit will not solve all the issues, we feel it is a step in the right direction. Parents, you can help us with this if your child was one of the offenders.

When was the last time you visited the Trenton City website? Have you ever been on the website? It is www.trentontn.net. We are in the process of putting a great video about Trenton on the site. You need to see it. Also, there is lots of information on the website and contact information to all the city departments. There are bios of your city officials, pictures, weather information and historical and demographic information. You can find upcoming agendas for City Council meetings and after the paper publishes my articles, you can read my Messages from the Mayor. After you are finished reading this article, jump on your computer or phone and visit our website.

I would like to thank the Last Drop Coffee Shop for putting Doggie Poop bags next to the Frank Gibson Pedestrian Park. I rarely walk through the park without seeing where one of our four-legged friends has left something to remember them by. If you are someone who walks your dog downtown, good for you. But if your pet does their business anywhere downtown, please pick it up. Frank and Lori have provided you with the means to be a good citizen and we thank them for it.

The nights have been cooler and as of this writing, we have been pretty dry so the grass has slowed down a little. We still have our civic duty to do and keep our yards cut. We also have an obligation to keep our trash in our garbage cans and not in our yards. 99% of the people do this extremely well in our beautiful little town. There is though a small percentage of individuals who still don’t understand that you shouldn’t wait on a letter from the Codes Enforcement Office to clean your property up. Some people need to look around and see how the majority of people maintain their property and copy what they see. Trenton is on the verge of growing. I’m looking at people’s plans daily and it is exciting. But in the process of growing, we want to do it properly and not lose the great ambiance we have here. Everyone must be on board and do their part to keep Trenton the great place it is. We will never be perfect but let’s try as hard as we can to come as close as we can. Until next time, God Bless you and God Bless Trenton.