My Birthday Wishes

Forget Valentine’s Day, we have an emergency. There are only nine more shopping days left until my birthday!

Seriously, at my age there isn’t much that I need or want. I have a wonderful family, two sons in college, a nice home and wonderful friends and neighbors, and a terrific new career at Coldwell Banker Brant Realty.

What I would like, however, is something from my community. This is probably going to go over like a lead balloon, but I hate it when reporters ask people why they’re doing the nice thing they’re doing and the answer is, “Because I want to give back to my community.”

If you really think about that, what has your community done for you?

I’ve given this a lot of thought and this is what I came up with. I paid for my own house, I paid for our cars, I pay my taxes that funds city services, I pay for water, sewer, recycling and garbage pick up, I pay for cable, I pay for our phones, I pay for homeowners, health and car insurance … the list goes on, I pay for everything I have. So, I ask again, what has my community done for me?

I wish people would say anything else during interviews, like “Because these people need help and we can help them,” or “It’s the right thing to do,” anything but “Because I want to give back to my community.”

But before I get too off the beaten track, here are the things I would like from my community:

First, I would like at least one of the dozens of restaurants in this town – besides pizza places – to deliver meals from their menu. I would pay big money to have , or , for example, to deliver my order to my home. I don’t think anyone that would use this service would care what the delivery charge would be; I would pay it! Think of the teens that could be employed delivering those meals.

Second, I would like for the to fix the intersections that do not make sense. For example, if you’re driving east on South Holly Road and reach the area where Adelaide Street and State Road meet, if you are the driver on South Holly Road and stop at the intersection where you are supposed to, you cannot see traffic heading south on Adelaide because of a huge berm on private property. As a result, you have to move up a few feet to be able to see. Not once, not twice, but every single time that happens, I am greeted with the single digit salute from some driver heading south on Adelaide because I am blocking his line of vision.

Third, I would like the people in this community to support children and give them something to do. I am not talking small children; there are plenty of activities here for them. I am talking about the middle and high school students. Outside of school activities, there is literally nothing for them to do in Fenton. We had a movie theater at one time, but now we don’t even have that since Fenton Cinemas closed.

I applaud people like Shaun and Tera Hamilton, a very creative couple, who are trying their best to build a skateboard/snowboard park in Fenton. We should be supporting young couples like this who are working day and night toward their goal of providing fun, recreational activities for our kids.

Next, I would like to see an ice cream truck come around neighborhoods in the summer. You see them from time to time, briefly, but then they’re gone. Is the city preventing them from doing business? I lived for the Good Humor man to come around when I was a kid. Why don’t we have an ice cream man?

Another thing I would like is a taxi service in town. We had for a while, but they apparently are gone, too. Why? There are times, especially in the winter, that I would love to call a taxi and let them do the driving instead of me. I know I am not alone on this one.

Last but not least, and this is a big one, could the city please get with the program and allow us to pay our taxes and other bills online. What is the hold up?

OK, maybe I’m asking for too much, but it’s something to think about.