Mayor's Corner: Ramblings From My Recent Arizona Vacation

Twin City Times- Thursday, November 27, 2008
Mayor's Corner #62

 My wife and I just returned from a 10 day vacation in Tucson, Arizona.  The weather was spectacular with daily sunshine and temperatures that hovered between 80° to 85°. It was nice to be able to continue jogging in shorts and T-shirt while in a desert atmosphere and looking at beautiful morning sunlit mountains.

There were a couple of reasons this vacation was special. It provided with a rendezvous with friends and with my oldest nephew/Godchild and his lovely wife, Suzé.

At the age of 10, I had just started the 5th grade at St. Peter’s School here in Lewiston where I had risen to the ranks of being taught by the Sacred Heart Brothers after years of being taught by the Dominican Sisters. A month later, my family made a geographical move to Southern California.  French was my primary language. My first day at Holy Angels School in Arcadia, California was met with the harsh reality that my primary language would have to become English. Sister Dorothy (my favorite teacher ever) was a Franciscan Sister. She made me feel so welcome on my first day of school there. She had assigned the class a short essay to write as homework. After class, I went up to her and said “I don’t know if I can do it in English”. She said, “That’s okay, just do it in French.” She died shortly thereafter at age 37 of tuberculosis. We all had to be tested as a result. I’m certain there is a high place for her in heaven.

That same day, I made a new friend. His name is Michael Rizzo. From that day forward, Mike and I were in the same classes together all the way through grammar school and high school. Our friendship has continued to this day. He and his wife Donna live in Albuquerque, New Mexico and they own an Italian Bread Company.

Mike and I also gained a mutual friend at Bishop Amat High School in La Puente, California, named Ronald Rita. He and his wife Suzie live in San Gabriel, California.
Ron is the one who inspired me to become a police officer upon my return from Vietnam. At the time, he was a Montebello Police Officer. Ron and Suzie’s first date was to a hockey game in Los Angeles as I had introduced Ron to the sport of hockey in bringing him to a Los Angeles Blades hockey game. The Blades were in the Western Hockey League which was equivalent to the American Hockey League of today. After their marriage, they eventually became season ticket holders of the L.A. Kings first at the Forum and subsequently at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Ron and Suzie have visited us here on several occasions since my move back to Lewiston in 1969. They have attended hockey games with us in Portland, Boston, Quebec and right here in Lewiston watching Lions Tournaments and our own Lewiston MAINEiacs.

Now, to the point, Mike, Ron, and I with our spouses have had rendezvous on a few occasions somewhere in the country. We have had them in Phoenix, Albuquerque and just last week in Tucson, Arizona. We spend a weekend together simply enjoying each other’s company, talk about our school days, today’s politics and even the pills we take. We must be getting old. We eat (too much), have a daily happy hour, and simply relax. We have planned our next rendezvous in Branson, Missouri and perhaps another in the Amish Country of Pennsylvania.

This vacation also gave us an opportunity to visit my oldest nephew and his lovely wife Suzé in their new home in Tucson.  They moved there from their former home in Westbrook where he had been an electronics engineer with Fairchild Semi-Conductor. He is now working for Texas Instruments.  She is a registered nurse and also works there. They have a beautiful home where we sat on their second story patio sipping on Margueritas watching the sun set on three mountain ranges that surround them. They have a saying; “When the mountains turn pink, it’s time for a drink.” Not a bad way to end a glorious day in a desert setting.

With our friends, and also our nephew and niece, we visited several points of interest that were simply out of this world. What a super vacation.

While there and when I visit anywhere, be that attending a conference or on vacation, I always look at some things I might be able to bring back to implement here. I use to do that as police chief and folks thought I was an innovator, when in fact I was simply bringing back an idea or program that I had observed when visiting another part of our great country and modifying it to meet our needs.

On this trip a couple of things stood out for me. We have been talking a bit here about single stream recycling and sure enough, they are doing it in Tucson. I took some photos of the containers they use for the municipal solid waste and their single stream recycling. It is neat and clean and universal. Even on trash day, things look neat and clean. They are very environmentally conscious. I also noticed that apartment buildings and hotels have to have their large solid waste containers enclosed and hidden from view with either a cinder block wall or fencing to shield the container. These thoughts certainly are something we should consider here. The pride in their community is clearly evident with these actions.

Wherever we went on every major road we saw blue signs along the road at various intervals that showed the outline of the State of Arizona and the name of an organization that was sponsoring that particular interval of the roadway as an ADOPT-A-ROADWAY.  There were companies and their employees listed, civic organizations, schools, condominium and apartment complexes, churches, etc., listed as those who volunteer to clean those roadways. It was wonderful to see, and yes there was no litter along the roadways. It simply sent the message that littering is not tolerated and the community has pride in itself. Again, the pride in their community was clearly evident with these actions. It spoke volumes as to their values.

The other discovery that drew my attention was that almost every major city street and rural roadway was identified as Bicycle Paths. Bicycling is very big there. You see young and old bicycling all over the entire area be that within the city or into canyons with views that are breathe taking. Folks there look healthy and their quality of life is enhanced with the help of municipal, county and state encouragement of bicycling by making these paths available.  These paths may simply be lanes along the road strictly dedicated to bicycles.

With bicycling in mind, I happened to read this past Sunday’s column in our local daily newspaper by the former Twin City Times Columnist, Jonathan LaBonte.  His column was entitled “Fight NIMBYS” NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard). He wrote mostly about young people enjoying bicycling and having areas where they can do so in lieu of sitting in front of a computer. Enjoying recreation and good exercise is part of enjoying a community and what may want to keep you there as your home. He talked about neighbors to a landfill in Lisbon where they were opposed to a bicycle path over the former dump that is valueless. How sad to be so narrow in vision. We must encourage and develop such paths if we are to keep our young people here interested and engaged as these are some of the things they are looking for in their community. I might also add that old folks like me might be encouraged to hop on a bike and take a trail ride. My wife and I both enjoy snowshoeing on the trails at Thorncraig Bird Sanctuary. It is great exercise and a way to “if you can’t beat the winter, to join it.” The plusses are great in the benefits of exercise and enjoying our natural beauty, right here in the center of our All-American City.

While in Tucson, I kept in touch with City Administrator Jim Bennett via e-mail on my cell phone internet service. I was able to read the Sun-Journal and Twin City Times as well. While away, I had asked to be provided with a DVD of the City Council meeting that I missed. Sure enough it was on my desk as I went to city hall to pick up my mail upon my return.

I watched the city council proceedings.  I took particular notice to Ward 4 City Councilor Denis Theriault in talking about building a restaurant on top of the proposed parking garage on Lincoln Street. Strangely enough, a few weeks ago while driving down Lincoln Street; I looked over on the Auburn side of the river and saw a number of lights that were attractive to the eye during evening hours. I also had in mind the proposed parking garage and thought the same thing as Councilor Theriault. Wouldn’t it be nice to be in a restaurant on top of the parking garage and look across the river to see a wonderful view while eating a meal or simply enjoying a drink in the cocktail lounge after business hours or after a symphony or ballet performance at the Franco-American Heritage Center?

I e-mailed Councilor Theriault and shared my thoughts with him and thanked him for bringing it up. He in turn told me that some of these thoughts came from his son Matt. I sent kudos to his son and shared with him that many of my thoughts come from my son Larry Jr. who also happens to have been a classmate of Jonathan LaBonte at St. Dom’s High School. The bottom line of our conversation via e-mail was that we need to engage young people as they are the future of our community. They have wonderful ideas and if they are included in the decision making, they may want to stay and sustain the future of our community. This, folks, is critical to the future of L-A!  If we lose our young adults, I seriously question our future. It is a simple matter of our survival. Consequently, we must look at what attracts them and engage them in their future right here in L-A.

Education is key to the economy of our state and if we educate our young and they move away, we lose the value of that education to the benefit of other states to which they are attracted.  We must keep them engaged and want to make our community their home where they will want to work and raise a family. With an educated workforce, we will attract new and technological industries. It is key to the future of L-A. I can’t stress it enough!!!!!

I have tried to consistently appoint young adults to various city boards, committees and commissions. I firmly believe that if we engage our young adults, they will serve our community well and want to remain to be part of what they had input in developing. I feel encouraged by our city council who are supportive of such appointments and involving our youth. For example, Councilor Theriault has proposed to have a member of the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council (LYAC) sit in that vacant seat at our city council meetings and to have that young person weigh in with his/her thoughts on various issues. I highly encourage such involvement.

Well, as I close, I wish to bring you back to the last leg of our flight from Tucson to Portland.  I stepped off the aircraft still wearing my sandals and nearly froze my large toe. That is when I knew I was back to reality.  In spite of the cold after exiting the airplane, it still felt good to return home after a most enjoyable and relaxing vacation.