thirsty.

As River City Eatery starts to take shape and my dream of opening a restaurant in Windom are coming true, I'm getting thirsty from all this hard, but oh so much fun work.  I'm getting thirsty for some microbrew.  Unfortunately, a beer and wine license, which we were lucky to recently receive, only allows River City to serve 3.2 beer.  With our beer and wine license we were hoping to serve some great mircro brews from some great local breweries, but these micro brews don't come 3.2 style.  So right now our option is Miller or Bud.  I don't mind Miller or Bud, but I'd like more options, you know?  And I'm sure my customers would want some other options as well.  So here is another option: to inform the city council about this archaic ordinance and allow a beer and wine license to include strong beer, which I have been informed by the state liquor inspector that it is up to the city to grant to an establishment holding a beer and wine license.  Good news this ordinance can be changed at a local level, and I definitely think it is something for the city council to consider. I'll keep you informed with the progress I make trying to get the city council to consider allowing something other than Miller or Bud products in River City Eatery.

Here's to the microbrews, our local breweries, and a cold one!  Cheers!

obligations.

Yesterday I was so surprisingly, informally and indirectly asked by a city worker to take down my beautiful hanging baskets on the posts in front of River City Eatery or the consequence would be that a city worker would take them down for me and I would be fined.  The fine would be because of "city right of way."  I would be fined because I hung flower baskets on city property.  My goal throughout this blog and throughout this journey have been to remain postitive, but sometimes I just need to be honest.  I have obligations as a respectable citizen of this community to follow rules set for our city, and I will continue to do so, thus the baskets that were hanging on the posts outside River City Eatery have been taken down.  I'm hoping that after enforcing harmless hanging baskets on city property that the ordinances to keep our city clean and tidy are also enforced.  I'm hoping the ordinances to keep our historic downtown buildings from deteriorating into dust will be enforced. And I'm hoping that someday, together as a City, we can set a standard of living, expectations for an outstanding quality of life, that we will all feel obligated to follow.

I'm going to stay postive.

RIP dear flowers, someday I hope we will meet again...

nite to unite.

Tonight is Windom's Nite to Unite on the Courthouse Square, and I can't help but think that it was a year ago that I was trying to build awareness about Finding Windom.  I wrote a post about all of Larry's friends gathering around him and the excitement of all of Windom's possibilities was weaved within every word of the post.  The same excitement holds true today, a year later.  There is so much we have done, are working on and hope to accomplish-what a wonderful feeling!  What a beautiful night to unite on the downtown square.

Also, tomorrow (Tuesday, August 9th), our local and very talented musician, Jim Austerman is hosting a free concert at the Historical Society from 1:30-3:30pm!  I encourage you to check it out!

this wall talks.

Sometimes you just have to listen in order to find something wonderful.  During the remodeling process of River City Eatery we found this beautiful brick wall under plaster.  As my handy father was trying to patch plaster after pulling off numerous sheets of unwanted paneling attached by huge square nails (you can imagine the holes those nails made in plaster!), the plaster was literally falling off the wall in a some spots.  Naturally I was curious, so I kept chipping away at the plaster and the next thing I know, I had a 4'x4' section of this perfect brick staring at me, begging to be revealed.  So during a stormy night until about midnight, with a hammer drill, a chisel, and the help of dad and some extremely generous friends, this amazing wall was freed from the blanket of plaster that covered it for way too many years.

Cheers to this wall my friends-what a fun surprise! And believe me, in the world of remodeling, not many surprises are good surprises.

priorities.

I want to share the 5 priorities of the Windom city council based on the community meetings feedback.  I have enjoyed discussing all of Windom's possibilities with not only other community members, but with the city council as well.  It is now my goal to see these priorities come to life with achievable goals set and made by the council.  How wonderful that we have concrete priorities set-we are on our way to wonderful things:

1. Community Pride-Dynamic future built on a positive and strong reputation and image.
2. Community Vitality-Create new jobs in tandem with a thriving and revitalized square.
3. Organizational Culture-High quality of services via an efficiant and effective workplace.
4. Public Facilities-Prioritize, plan and fun capital improvements.
5. Natural Resources-Utilize the value and beautify of our land and geography.

Next step--setting goals!