Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 59. Sunrise is 5:26 and sunset is 8:17 for 14 hours 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 29.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board’s Strategic Planning Work Group meets at 4:30 PM.
On this day in 1917, the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
This year’s annual Spring Splash was managed as it should have been: with the matter-of-fact approach required of a foreseeable, annual event in a college town. See City of Whitewater, Council Agenda Item, Spring Splash 2026 After Action Report (May 19, 2026) and Video Presentation of the Report.
Whitewater is a college town and so one can — and should — expect to see college students. Those who live in a forest can expect to see trees in all directions. Those living in a forest and don’t want to see pines or maples might consider moving from the forest. Those who are working at public expense in a forest and don’t want to see pines or maples might consider finding work elsewhere. (There have to be deserts, somewhere, just waiting…)
Years ago, however, many in Whitewater and among her municipal employees (appointed or in law enforcement) carried on as though this college town should not have college students. (More precisely: that students should be seen but not heard, or better yet neither seen nor heard except when their rent was due.)
Whitewater is a college town and she does, in fact, have college students among her residents. Some limited portion of their time will, naturally and understandably, be spent celebrating at semester’s end. One of those celebrations is the annual Spring Splash gathering.
While adults are responsible for their actions, it was never too much to ask our municipal officials — elected, appointed, or in law enforcement — that they manage public conduct smoothly and without fuss.
Long time coming, but welcome no less for it, is the recent level-headed approach to an ordinary student festival in a normal college town.
_____
Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.
Why meat-eating dinosaurs like T. rex evolved to have tiny arms: