Sunday, December 3, 2006

Great People, Nice Day

This was a real nice day. I fired up my printer and prepared all sorts of paraphernalia for my campaign - table tents, name tags and business cards. This was in preparation for my first organized fundraiser. The Blogger-sphere seems to be having an issue with the posting of pictures and I have some real nice ones of the event - so those will be coming shortly. But, let's start with the first stop of the day.


My good friend Nancy Jarrell (who I hope to have as my volunteer coordinator - Coach Nancy - I need to get her a whistle to hang around her neck!) joined my and we have some pictures from that too. And, lucky day, we have pictures now! Timing is everything. That's Nancy and me in front of the tree at Tea's Etc. - 1800 Block of North Dixie Hwy. - right next to John Paxman's office. They have been there for a year, but decided to hold an open house in advance of the holiday season. Stop in and check them out - they are direct importers of loose teas from around the world. A nice addition to the Lake Worth retail community. And, who did I bump into - none other than my friends Charles and Ray (also known as "Ray/Charles" in Karaoke circles). I haven't seen them in a while and believe me - they were a real scream (literally) at Karaoke! I hope they come back and share their unique style with us at a Thursday night session.



So, after sipping some tea and having some nice nibbles, I dropped Nancy off and went on to Mark Geier and Bill Martin's for my first fundraiser. I should say "fun" raiser! I met some wonderful people, mostly neighbors of Mark/Bill and it was a great chance to get to meet some of their neighbors and their concerns/issues about being a homeowner in Lake Worth. This was really my first stop on the campaign trail. Thanks also to Jim Lewis who helped with the food and organizing the event.

North O is one of my favorite streets in Lake Worth. The house where we gathered was built in 1948 and the homeowners are lucky to have pictures of the house under construction and with it as a newly finished. I remember seeing the property with a friend who was looking for a house at the time right before the new owners purchased it about 8 years ago. Mark and Bill have really transformed it. The pool is a great addition.

Here are some pictures from the event:


And what would a political event be without a candidate and baby picture! That's little Eva looking cute.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Saturday, December 2, 2006

More Good News and a Funny Story...

Yesterday was an interesting day. I happened to be part of a meeting that including State Representative Mary Brandenburg and we were talking about legislative priorities and the effect of current conditions on the residential housing market. Others that were part of the meeting talked about ways to make the property insurance burden less and other affordability factors affecting the housing market. What the market is anticipating is the eventual portability of the Save Our Homes initiative (limiting the increase of taxable value to 3% annually for homesteaded property) and that is keeping people in their current place of residence. Instead of moving up in their housing to accommodate a growing family, etc, they are choosing to stay put and improve their own homes. That is good news for our existing housing stock and it also underlines the importance of having a responsive Building Department (one that does not lay blame at the foot of the homeowner).

But that's not the real good news. The good news is that one of the people that was in attendance was Mr. Robert J. Kanjian, a member of the Palm Beach County School Board. We were chatting about various things and he did not know of my association with Lake Worth. And he volunteered that he likes what is happening in downtown Lake Worth and that he really likes taking his family to Lake Avenue. He recommends coming here over Delray and West Palm Beach. He then commented that on Thursday night on Clematis Street the police had to use mace.on a group of teenagers. And he went on to say that despite our very public political in-fighting, we are out-pacing our surrounding communities. It was then that I told him about my association with Lake Worth. A nice guy and I couldn't agree more with him. We all know, however, that we still have work to do.


"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"