While it is localized to an extent, there are numerous properties in town that flood even with storms. Now this isn't meaning those big storms that cause the City Park to flood, but just your average spring or summer thunderstorm. One thing that seems to be common in all these properties is the lack of proper drainage. The fix for some of these houses is simple, fix the drainage ditch in one form or another.

There's a difference between a puddle in a yard, and the yard flooding -- and this is about the yards that have their entire front yard under water, or just have a minor flooding that covers the street to about 10 feet or more into the yard and up to the car tires in the driveway. There are numerous properties in town that stink from stagnant water even when the other properties and areas are dry.

Joshua Rodgers would like the street department to actually go out after a rain and see the problem areas -- he's not saying they don't know, but as the properties still have this problem after years, it's obvious it's not a high priority. He then wants the properties fixed so the drainage problems are a thing of the past.

Water sitting on property can damage homes, cars, and be breeding grounds for certain insects. There's nothing good about water standing around in a person's yard -- unless they're trying to put a lake on their property of course.

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Joshua Rodgers would like to see, at the very least, some new sidewalks put in so every street has at least one; and existing sidewalks to be repaired so they're safe to actually use.

While it's true that a number of the roads in town aren't that great, sidewalks are in far worse shape. As many people in town would know just by looking outside, or even walking themselves, people spend as much time on the roads walking as they do on sidewalks. There are many instances where there's no choice -- there just aren't sidewalks on either side of the road places. Many other streets have sidewalks that start or stop at different places, or just have a sidewalk only on one side of the road. Others are in such poor condition that you have to leave the sidewalk for safety reasons.

Now while this isn't good for people walking -- just think about the difficulties for people in wheelchairs! At least once every few days during the spring and summer months, you can find in some parts of town someone going about in a wheelchair on the road. Not that the person wants to be on the road -- but there isn't a sidewalk that the wheelchair can be on due to the conditions of it.

Even children and seniors are forced to take to the streets if they want to walk places -- some for safety reasons, others just for a lack of sidewalks. And while walking the streets isn't entirely safe for any age, it can pose a greater risk for the younger and older people for various reasons.

Sidewalk Pictures

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Given there's no law against it, Joshua Rodgers wants everything done by the city to be public whenever possible. He believes the only things that should be closed door should involve things that is really no one's business but the people involved -- yet have to be told to the board for one reason or another (like a person stepping down due to medical conditions).

He would like to see all meetings recorded with audio and video for live streaming video feeds online (so you could sit at home and watch the meeting on your computer), possibly actually having the radio/television station(s) present for meetings for live coverage, and live audio-only feeds so people could at least listen in live from home.

Of course, he recognizes that this might not be an option based on different factors.

No matter if live feeds are done or not -- he does want the audio recordings (and video if video is done) available for download from the city's website after the meetings, and actually archived for the maximum time allowed. So anyone not able to attend the meeting could, at the very least, hear what was going on even if they can't respond live.

He believes in doing this for two main reasons:

1. He wants the people to actually know what's going on, and have the ability to "attend" meetings no matter where they are
2. He wants the elected officials to be accountable for how they vote.

If you've got an official you've elected to office, and they're voting on things you don't want passed, Joshua Rodgers believes that you should be aware of it, and be able to use that in your future voting choices.

He also believes that all voting records for everything should be put up online as well -- that way people not wanting to listen, watch or attend meetings can see at a glance how their alderman voted.

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