Click here to view PDF of Ace page 5, 2.05.2009
Stimulate This!
This past weekend, Mayor Newberry announced his initial appointees to the Mayor’s Commission on the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Plan.
Lex’s stimulus Wish List included 196 projects at $556 million.
The appointments (so far) are: Mayor Newberry as chair; City Senior Advisor Joe Kelly; Acting Commissioner of Public Works Mike Webb; Commissioner of Environmental Quality Cheryl Taylor; Commissioner of Finance and Administration Kyna Koch; Public Safety Commissioner Tim Bennett; Vice Mayor Jim Gray; and Council Members Kevin Stinnett, Peggy Henson;
and Ed Lane.
Community appointees are State Rep Susan Westrom; State Rep Bill Farmer; Commerce Lex’s Tyrone Tyra; Urban League’s David Cozart; Housing Authority’s Austin Simms; UK’s Lisa Higgins-Hord; and United Way’s
Kathy Plomin.
No one’s invited public opinion, but Mayor Newberry did say he might add others.
So, Ace would nominate two more Community Appointees (actually, there are dozens, but these two kill so many birds with one stone, it’s impossible to
count).
SustainLex’s Jim Embry is a tireless advocate for resources for the environment, education, slow food, sustainable energy, just to name a few. He represented Lexington beautifully in Italy this past fall at Terra Madre.
Latitude’s Bruce Burris is (again) a tireless advocate for the arts and for people with disabilities — you may remember he also started the Eastern State
Hospital cemetery recovery efforts, because, well, nobody else was stepping up to do the job. He does that a lot. (Check out his Small Projects Accelerator at
ElandF Gallery.) He’s also a successful working artist, running a successful MODEL program for artists with disabilities at Latitude.
Both Embry and Burris have been “This Year’s Models” in Ace. They were selected for their amazing efforts in getting things done in this town. They’re both visionaries. (Ace’s 2008 Model Vice Mayor Jim Gray is
on the Commission.)
It would be tremendous if LFUCG invited Embry and Burris — and citizens like them — into the process of how the sausage gets made in Lexington. (Even though Jim’s a vegetarian.)
