Council listens

Last week, Jason Callihan's letter to the editor expressed his opinion that there are far more important things for the city council to be concerned with than the complaint of an elderly man about the music at a neighborhood block party. The party was allowed through a special-event permit. Mr. Callihan also expressed the fear the council might make special-event permits harder to get.

This city council is very responsive to citizen input and needs. The gentleman with a pacemaker had been upset, not about the music, but about the loudly throbbing bass, which was causing him significant physical discomfort. Twice the bass was turned down when the police officers arrived and cranked up 10 minutes after they left.

So we councilors discussed the matter briefly and then merely asked the city manager to next year ask these party-givers to ride the volume controls a little more discreetly.

This is a very enabling city council. Earlier this year, the city manager asked us to let the city staff make all the decisions about who would get special-event permits. And the council said, "Sure, issue all the permits you think are reasonable, but we want to see any permits you turn down, because we might want to find a way to grant them."

A while ago, we fielded a request from Nelson's Hardware to set up a tent in three parking spaces to have a sale for Memorial Day weekend for four days. The city staff thought this might not be a good idea — other businesses might want the same privileges or object to having less parking on Central Avenue, or who knows what.

Shirley Jacobson said, "Sounds like fun." I said, "These guys gotta compete with Home Depot and Lowes." Somebody else said, "If problems arise, we'll deal with them. Let them have the permit." And we did.

From awarding million dollar contracts for building and maintaining our infrastructure, to protecting our water and air from pollution, to dealing with the personal concerns of individual citizens, that is what our job of being city councilors is about. That's what running a city our size is about.

Nick Palmer is a Whitefish city councilor.