Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, building memories with family and friends

There seems to be only one way to start this week’s article. That is by letting you know that my hope is for YOU to have a wonderful Thanksgiving. May the memories from this year warm your heart for many years to come. 

 Cathy and I will be spending the holiday with our daughter’s-in-law in Boise. I’m not sure what the plans are, but as long as the day involves family, friends, and food it can’t go too far wrong. 

 Again, I hope YOU have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 Now going on to a subject that has been touched on in the past, the city’s Comprehensive Plan will be coming out in its final DRAFT form within the next day or two. 

 The State Legislature requires cities and counties complete a new comprehensive plan on a regular basis. Although the law does not require a specific time frame to create a new plan, the consensus among cities is to prepare one every five to 10 years. The last plan put in place by the city was in 1999. 

 The purpose of the comprehensive plan is to provide guidance for the planning and zoning commission and give developers an idea of the community’s desires and aspirations for the future. The Plan also lays out steps to take to help achieve those goals. The goals are not set in stone. However, the planning and zoning commission and city council should refer to the plan when making decisions regarding the city’s future.

 The draft will be posted on the city’s website along with a questionnaire that you will be able to respond to for final input. There will be a public hearing on Monday, Dec. 19 for final input. We debated whether to postpone the public hearing until after the holidays, but with the ability to review the plan online, the accompanying questionnaire, and the importance of completing the plan in a timely manner, the decision was made to not hold off and to finalize it in December. 

 The draft is currently a 62-page document covering every major aspect of the city. If you are interested in reviewing the plan and making comments, you will want to allow yourself some time to do so. 

 Your input is vital. 

 The more people respond, the clearer picture the city has of the direction you want the city to follow in its planning. 

 So, please take the time to review and provide feedback. 

 To develop the plan, I recommended to the city council, and the council approved, hiring an outside firm to prepare it. I wanted to get fresh eyes on the project and an outside perspective. The cost of the completed plan will be somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000. 

 To give some perspective on this, the same firm recently put together a plan for the City of Kuna that was in the range of $200,000. So, although the price tag may seem like a lot, by the very scope of the project, it requires a considerable amount of time and effort to put together, hence the cost.

 Now on to other business. With the onslaught of cold nights and frost-covered windows in the morning, Carl Smith our Chief of Police, would like to remind you to do two things when getting ready to drive your uncovered car in the morning. The first is to be sure to completely scrape your windshield and side windows for an unobstructed view. This is critical to the safety of yourself, other drivers, and pedestrians, especially school children.

 The second is that if you are warming up your vehicle, please do not leave it running unattended without locking it first. We live in one of the safest small towns in America, but we do not have to tempt someone unnecessarily. So please, do yourself a favor by locking your unattended running vehicle.

 Well, that’s it for this week. May you have a great and wonderful day of Thanksgiving!