lunchbyteblog

Community is an important idea to many of us. We all live in communities of some kind and we interact within sub-communities of our community as a whole. Maybe you live in a city, have a church community that you belong to, and also have a work group that is also part of your community experience. We are social animals and we often seek interaction with others. These days our communities may be physical groups or virtual groups. You're reading this on a social media platform and that is also a way that you interact with others. Regardless, lately I've been reminded of the importance of community. As our world has changed over the past year or so each of us has reacted in different ways. Each of us has dealt with the pandemic based on our belief systems, our station in life, our family and friends, and other considerations. And for some of us, maybe all of us, there was no blueprint for how to move forward in this strange new world. I say all of this because, as we move closer t

Tuesday night at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Newton, NC city council we had a presentation given to council by our Public Works director Dusty Wentz. Mr. Wentz outlined the operations of the Wastewater Treatment Plant(WTP). He had several maps and diagrams showing the ins and outs of the Wastewater Treatment Plant. He later made several other presentations that involved budget ordinance amendments and approvals of money for the WTP.  It was an interesting night that showed that many of our tax dollars go to places where the general public may not see evidence of the monies being spent. In the past 5 years the city has spent $959,352 on 17 projects at the WTP. We approved another half a million in dollars last night. All of this is to keep the WTP up and running and in compliance with both state and federal regulations.  There's nothing exciting about spending these dollars. They don't really cause people to exclaim in admiration about the great job the city is doing.