Nicholson
Ever bought a new car and then discovered how many of them there are on the road?
I know I have, but before I explore this thought more, let me share some of my week serving as the mayor of the best small town in America.
Some days, my calendar is fuller than others, and this week held one of the busiest yet. One of my stops was at the Indiana Rural Health Association Substance Use Disorder Workshop held here in Seymour.
As I looked at a packed list of presenters, I wondered what I could add to the mix to further the conversation. Then as I listened to the first presenter, I realized ending the stigma was a big part of the conversation during an early meeting I had with community members in long-term recovery and chose to share the story of how we applied for and received a grant from the Family and Social Services Administration to start our efforts on recovery and hopefully create a more normal conversation about recovery.
While Seymour took the lead on this, it is a countywide project that will require support from many different agencies and organizations to make it a long-term success. I also took the chance to introduce Steve Sharer and Kim Glaze as the new faces of our recovery efforts.
The next stop that day was to host the Administrative Resources association annual meeting, where we had a chance to get updates on the previous year’s efforts in several areas and look toward the year ahead of us.
The guest speaker was Cheryl Buffo from Columbus Regional Health, who is assigned to the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County. With ASAP being one of our partners in our new recovery grant work, it was nice to hear another presentation related to how their program has blossomed in the last five years.
With their help and the drive and determination we are already seeing from Steve and Kim, I believe we will be able to accelerate our timeline. Our community is already ahead in some areas and lacking in others, but together with focus, we can work toward a healthier tomorrow.
Well, back to that opening thought. When we buy a new car, we are focused on that make and model, and we start to notice them everywhere. Much the same way I spend my days focused on future opportunities for Seymour.
Some of those are quickly ready to share, and some take time to prepare, such as the announcement of Seymour and Jackson County being awarded $500,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency. I started looking at this grant in 2020 and how best to serve our countywide community. With everything going on during 2020 with COVID, I made the decision to keep working on a 2021 application submission.
This included meetings with elected officials from around the county that have now led to being awarded funding to help get several properties inspected to spur future development countywide. Instead of looking for opportunities, some often find themselves looking for differences. When we are focused on those differences, we will surely find them and then find plenty of grounds for division in the future as well as plenty of chances to be mad at those around us.
Instead, if we are looking for similarities with our fellow man, we will find common ground to start building a foundation for the future.
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” If the first step is to help our mind start to find the good in situations, the positives around us and the things we want to be a part of our tomorrow, we will start to see them on a regular basis. We will notice them like that new car.
Matt Nicholson is the mayor of Seymour. Send comments to [email protected].