How Times Change

My goodness...things are happening quickly. 
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• New York’s governor is gone. What was his name, again?

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• Our second Vietnam is ending in Afghanistan this week. 

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• Two major American cities have gone full-on Gestapo with their covid measures.

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• Drought, wildfires, food shortages, inflation...all getting worse.

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• And to top it all off, Biden’s gone on vacation. 

Yes, things are happening quickly...and the question is, what are you going to do about it?

I have three ideas:
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• Nothing
• Complain
• Bitch about it on social media

Honestly, I should have just listed one idea, because the second two only result in the first. 

It’s frustrating, isn’t it...knowing that nothing you say, think or do is going to change anything about our current world. 

Oh, and getting mad about it isn’t the answer. That’ll only drive up your heart-rate and blood pressure, forcing your doctor to write you yet another prescription for Big Pharma. 

How’s that working out for ya?

It’s not. It hasn’t been working your entire adult life, and you know it. 


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It’s no surprise that I’m running out of things to write about. Lately I’ve been copy-pasting posts from other sites.

I’m pretty confident you don’t want to hear about any of this:

1. FY22 Transportation 1 Bike Ped Planner
2. FY22 Transportation 2 MIM Local Match increase
3. FY22 Water 1 Water Pay Scale Adjustment
4. FY22 Water 2 Overtime
5. FY22 Water 3 PW Intern
6. FY22 Water CIP1 Water System Improvements
7. FY22 Water CIP2 Production Improvements
8. FY22 Water CIP3 Meters
9. FY22 Water CIP4 Hydrants
10. FY22 Water CIP5 Main Upsizing
11. FY22 Water CIP6 Minckler Loop Waterworks Hill
12. FY22 Wastewater 1 Collection System Vehicle
13. FY22 Wastewater 2 Fuel, Polymer, and Natural Gas Inflationary Adjustement
14. FY22 Wastewater 3 Plant and Compost Overtime
15. FY22 Wastewater 4 Plant and Compost R and D
16. FY22 Wastewater 5 Wastewater Pay Adjustments
17. FY22 Wastewater CIP1 Collection Improvements
18. FY22 Wastewater CIP2 Plant Improvements
19. FY22 Wastewater CIP3 Compost
20. FY22 Storm Water CIP1 System Improvements
21. FY22 Storm Water CIP2 Levees
22. FY22 PW Admin CIP1 Comm Infrastructure
23. FY22 PW Admin CIP2 Wayside Horns Project
24. FY22 Road District 1 Sweeper Lease
25. FY22 Road District 2 Sidewalk Bike Lane Sweeper
26. FY22 Road District 3 Mini Excavator
27. FY22 Road District 4 Traffic Signal Conflict Monitor Tester
28. FY22 Road District 5 Six new Streets FTEs
29. FY22 Road District 6 PW Admin Pay Adjustements
30. FY22 Road District 7 Bike Ped Planner Subsidy
31. FY22 Road District 7 Bike Ped Planner Subsidy 2
32. FY22 Engineering 1 MIM Subsidy
33. FY22 Engineering 2 Engineering Pay
34. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP1 Mullan Rd Reconstruction
35. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP2 South Ave Improvements
36. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP3 Lower Miller Creek Rd.
37. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP4 Cemetery Rd
38. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP5 George Elmer Cattle Dr Roundabout
39. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP6 Higgins Ave
40. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP7 California St Reconstruction
41. FY22 Engineering Roadway CIP8 England Extension
42. FY22 Engineering BUILD Grant CIP1 BUILD
43. FY22 Engineering BUILD Grant CIP1 Mullan BUILD
44. FY22 Engineering BUILD Grant CIP2 Flynn Lowney Ditch
45. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP1 Westside Area Mobility
46. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP2 Kent Central Greenway
47. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP3 Burton Greenway
48. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP4 Eaton Sidewalks
49. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP5 Turner and Worden
50. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP6 Spurgin and 10th
51. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP7 Russell Fairgrounds Trail Crossing
52. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP8 Ivy Fanklin Park Greenway
53. FY22 Engineering Sidewalk CIP9 Maple St Sidewalks
54. FY22 Cemetery 1 New Storage Building
55. FY22 Cemetery CIP1 Architect Services
56. FY22 Parking 1 Baseline Increases
57. FY22 Parking 2 Mobile License Plate Recognition Hardware
58. FY22 Parking CIP1 Modems for Parking Kiosks
59. FY22 Finance CIP1 Financial Management and Reporting Software
60. FY22 Administration CIP1 Federal Building Rehabilitation
61. FY22 Council 1 Constituent Engagement Resources
62. FY22 IT CIP1 Ongoing Equipment Replacement
63. FY22 IT CIP2 Ongoing Remote Working Hardware
64. FY22 Clerk CIP1 Enterprise Content Management
65. FY22 Non-Departmental 1 City Non-Union Wages
66. FY22 Non-Departmental 2 City-wide Compensation Plan Adjustments
67. FY22 Non-Departmental 3 Health Dept Contribution
68. FY22 Non-Departmental 4 Environmental Health Specialist
69. FY22 Non-Departmental 5 Public Information Officer
70. FY22 Non-Departmental 6 Animal Control Shelter Expansion
71. FY22 Non-Departmental 7 Health Dept Pandemic Response
72. FY22 BID Workplan and Budget
73. FY22 TBID Budget

Yeah....73 new budget requests coming up for this week, tomorrow to be exact. 

For brevity’s sake, let me just highlight three items:

• $2.2 million to reconfigure the old federal building for city use, with another $6 million spent in ‘23; $4 million in ‘24; $1.8 million in ‘25; and $1 million in ‘26. I’m sure most of those amounts will go up over time. Wasn’t this purchase supposed to save us money? I count over $15 million, not to buy...but just to ‘rehabilitate.’

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• $1.5 million to reconfigure traffic lanes to better accommodate bikes, which is part of the Florida-designed downtown master plan. 

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• $195,000 for a bike lane sweeper because the new Russell Street Bridge won’t accommodate current street sweepers. (We’re also hiring 6 new, full-time street sweeping employees, for $801,000). 

Folks, I’m frustrated. 

I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to keep digging into these numbers. It’s depressing. 

I checked about 20 of those 73 budget request items. Some are justified, but many are not. 

And also, just the sheer cost. Are we doing any kind of bidding or negotiating or anything? Because some of these prices are outrageous. 

The vast majority of the 75,000 people living in Missoula have no idea about these numbers, and if they did, I’m not sure they’d care. 

Mayor Engen always uses the excuse that ‘citizens demand a certain level of services from their city,’ and maybe he’s right. Hell, he’s been voted in 4 times, and has a very good chance to get a 5th term. 

Or is this the year that people do start paying attention, do start to care? 

We’ll find out in a few weeks. 

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