We have a fairly innocuous agenda for Monday night's Council meeting as most items are bills to be paid. Please have a relaxing and safe weekend.

​Water Project Phase I
No progress or news to report since the last memo.
 
 
WWTP Project Phase II
Since our last council meeting, very little action/progress on the WWTP Phase II has been done. Most of my time has been spent on permit issues with CDF and personnel related tasks. My expectations for the next two weeks, is to meet with Utility Advisory Committee and begin discussing in more detail relevant options to pursue in the forthcoming months. As was stated in previous memos, the difficult work of formulating long-term utility policy must take place so we as council and staff have a logical and deliberate course to follow.
 

As this council packet progresses towards completion I, like many, have been reluctant to acknowledge that 2015 is gone as its stay was so fleeting. Its presence seemed so brief that it became a compulsion to become familiar with the definition of “time” once again, to attempt in explaining why the years carry us along like the current of a river with little sense of speed. According to one website,
 
“Time is an observed phenomenon, by means of which human beings sense and record changes in the environment and in the universe. A literal definition is elusive. Time has been called an illusion, a dimension, a smooth-flowing continuum, and an expression of separation among events that occur in the same physical location.”
 
Okay, this definition seems logical and academic, but it also has a huge dose of philosophical implications. What about on a day-to-day basis? Another definition rises to the surface.
 
“Time is a practical convenience in modern life. Numerous standards have been set up, allowing people to coordinate events and, in general, keep their lives running smoothly. The earth has been divided into so-called time zones that reflect the fact that high noon occurs at different times at different places on the planet. All of these time zones are referenced to the time at the longitude of Greenwich, England. A universal standard, coinciding almost exactly with the time at Greenwich, is known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). There are various other time standards.”
 
Again, okay; okay in the sense that time as we know it, define it, and organize it keeps us on schedule as a civilized culture both domestically and internationally. We plan our day to be in sync with clocks, watches, and now even our smartphones. But, to be honest, the definition seems dry, boring, and obvious. There has to be another definition that tantalizes our imaginations beyond the obvious and guess what? There is.
 
“Isaac Newton believed that time is continuous, and that it flows at an unchanging rate everywhere in the universe. This was accepted by most scientists until the Michelson-Morley experiment around the end of the 19th century, from which it was discovered that the speed of light is the same regardless of the direction of propagation, and regardless of the motion of the source. Albert Einstein considered this result an axiom, from which he derived the special and general theories of relativity. According to relativistic physics, the rate at which time passes depends on the relative motion between observers, and also on the strength of a gravitational or acceleration field.”
 
I love this explanation, or rather statement, in spite of the fact there is no definitive clarity on the answer to the original question. Why does this thing called time (and the years) pass so quickly like 2015 and 2014 before that? I don’t know except for a personal observation of others, including myself. Maybe it’s because the experiences and aromas of life are so beautiful and rich that we thirst for more and more. This thirst then creates a kind of acceleration that sweeps us along like a river when we’re canoeing or tubing. I don’t know, but what I do know is that 2016 will probably sweep by like 2015 and that I need to pay more attention to what’s on each side of the river better than what I have in years past.
 
That said, I wish everyone a successful 2016 and may time slow just a bit to enhance the experiences and aromas. 

Water Project Phase I
In the previous memo dated December 14, 2015, I discussed the possible need for an inspection of the 16 inch water transmission line under the Grand River. Since that last memo, Prein&Newhof has started the process to determine cost and define more specifically the scope of the project, meaning what will specifically have to be done to the transmission main in order to safely inspect it. That information is being compiled at this time. 
 
 
WWTP Project Phase II
The City of Coopersville, Muskegon County Waste Water, CDF, and Select Services met to seek additional information on Muskegon’s waste water proposal. The meeting was informative and we received more detail information concerning financing, operational issues, and long-term growth challenges.
 
The Utility Advisory Committee (UAC) met and discussed this option including other competing plans. From that meeting other issues arose that requires additional information to council members to study. Essentially though, before the city can make a definitive decision on what sewer option to commit to, it must study and evaluate what are the long-term policy issues at stake. It’s true, it will be the policy adopted that will determine to which sewer option we will commit; that option will impact the city for decades. Policy formation is difficult and unpredictable. It is hard to peer into the future, attempt to draw a picture of what you see, then take that picture and draft a policy for the city to follow. For all practical purposes, that’s where we at this time. It’s tough but at some point in time, nearer than further, a discussion must take place. The UAC will meet again to discuss this item in more detail.