Good morning.

Dr. Martin Luther King Day in Whitewater will be sunny and cold with a high of 4. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset is 4:52, for 9 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 61 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1783, the Kingdom of Great Britain signs preliminary articles of peace with the Kingdom of France, setting the stage for the official end of hostilities in the Revolutionary War later that year.
On 1.9.25, the Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters sponsored three presentations at Whitewater’s city hall, from City Manager John Weidl, Chancellor Corey King, and Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty. The first of these, from Whitewater’s city manager, is embedded above.
A few remarks:
This is a strong presentation. Neither of the last two city managers ever delivered remarks with this succinct clarity. A position of ideological skepticism of government (like mine) should strengthen, rather than weaken, one’s grasp of conditions and people. (Strengthen, rather than weaken, because it’s a sound position to hold.) And so, and so, one should be plain: there is a wide gap between this presentation and those of former city managers, or a few aged residents, who themselves have not spoken with such succinct clarity (and likely could not). Whitewater benefits by addresses like this.
Development has grown significantly in these last two years, both residential (homes and apartments) and commercial (stores big and small). Development (lit., ‘the process of converting land to a new purpose by constructing buildings or making use of its resources’) is a community gain.
We’ve also had new cultural events, e.g., a food truck fest and Christmas at Cravath. Along with thousands of residents, my family enjoyed both of these events. See A Food Truck Festival @ the Lakefront and Christmas at Cravath’s Festive Lights. These social events create social bonds.
Whitewater has sensibly moved to a professional fire and emergency services model. Response times are now markedly better. There should be no doubt that moving to a professional model meets the minimum expectation of any government: that it provides for public safety. (If all this could be done through volunteers, there would be an alternative worth considering; all this cannot be done through volunteers, and so that alternative is beyond consideration.) There is now before the city a policing referendum for additional officers. A referendum that staffs a neutral, non-ideological public safety department is in the community interest. (Every word in that last sentence matters: a partisan, ideological public safety department would not be in this community’s interest, at staffing of one person or a thousand.)
Finally, a few words about our lakes. It’s understandable that residents would be disappointed at the condition of the lakes. The last municipal administration, however, was not alone in leaving the lakes like this. There were many thousands of us living here, and all of us knew that there were lakes, and what they looked like1. We all knew it looked bad. Not enough of us did enough. Some did, but not enough of us. (This libertarian blogger is in the not enough of us group.) A comprehensive lakes management plan with outside institutional support, as is now underway, is the right direction.
There should be a discussion, and debate, about public directions. I’d guess this, however: most people in this city of fifteen thousand see progress (and far more progress than before). Most people (by a larger margin) likely prefer the current direction to the alternatives.
That preference is predictable and sensible.
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- Admittedly, the last city manager wasn’t aware for two days that oil from an asphalt project, for example, was running into the lake. ↩︎
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