A bright and shining Copperas Cove city council moment

Olly, golly, y’all, what a long meeting on Thursday night. A little over 3 hours. Wooo, doggie. Or is that dawgie?

I did promise you one more post to round out the weekend so here it is!

(Did you miss my earlier post of today's 2-fer?
Here it is: http://copperascovecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/08/post-turtles-part-deux.html 

Curmudgeon is going to weigh in on the whole tourism thing and hotel occupancy tax funds another time. I’ve hinted at it before, about how the city handles “tourism”.

But there is a great big sparkling, shining moment when the Copperas Cove city council received applause for its actions, starting with one councilman’s move.

Don’t fall out of your chairs or drop your phones. Curmudgeon, for once, isn’t poking fun at anyone. Although, usually when I poke fun, I am dead serious.

Can anyone recall the last time someone applauded the actions of the council? Anyone? Bueller?

Not applause for someone who's challenging the council, but applause for a decision that the council made itself.

That decision and applause on Thursday night had to do with the Copperas Cove Boys & Girls Club.

A necessary digression here, dear readers. In case you didn’t know, we have working poor in Copperas Cove, y’all. Moms and dads who work more than one job, retail jobs, odd hours, just to make ends meet. Daycare is not an option for some of them. So there’s the Boys & Girls Club.

Their director came to the council and asked for $10,000 out of the general fund, for help with the program’s afterschool transportation services. She outlined the cost, the number of kids, what they do, the benefit to the citizens, and how they are trying to help at-risk kids.

They keep kids off the streets. They keep them from being home alone unattended. They provide a place for them to be so parents can make a living. Not everyone has the funds to pay for after school care. Have any of the old men on council priced it lately and crunched any numbers? There is a large poverty element in our city that the council needs to heed – ones who DO NOT qualify for any type of veterans’ benefits and make too much for welfare. These are the grandchildren and even great-grandchildren of veterans who are “just like the rest of the civilians.”

Back to the shining moment -

After a long string of presentations, the council came back around and went down the list of requests.

Charlie Youngs designated that the Boys & Girls Club should receive $5,000, with three of the others conceding. At one point, Sorry-Charlie thought the library should have received the other $5,000 for books –in essence, he said purchasing books would be money better spent than helping 120-130 children.
Ummmm… Curmudgeon will let that lie right there….

Moving along, Hill Country Community Action Association was designated $5,000 for Meals on Wheels. The Hill Country Transit/HOP would get $100,000. The Mounted Warfare Foundation would get $25,000 for the museum (Charlie Youngs wasn’t keen on that, he and another said $15,000). The Noon Exchange Club would get $4,280 for their Feast of Sharing. (Um, but council y’all could have waived their fee to use the CIVIC CENTER for the PUBLIC PURPOSE that their event serves the community – after all, you let the COPPERAS COVE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE USE THE WHOLE PARK FOR FREEEEEEE! Sorry, still a sore spot with Curmudgeon. Haverlah did say you could provide an exemption – I mean, y’all set the fee and the ordinance.)

Then comes the tally  of those funds -  and there is $19,006 “left over” after all the recommended allocations. This is the ONE CHANCE every year, for “worthy” groups to make their case for funds.

Place 1 Councilman David I’m-a-writer-not-a-talker Morris chooses this time to FIND HIS VOICE at the BEST. POSSIBLE. MOMENT!

Mr. Morris suggests to the rest of the council that $5,000 of the leftover money be given to fund the Boys & Girls Club the full $10,000 that they requested.

“Can we discuss giving the Boys & Girls club $5,000 - Someone hit it on the head earlier – we get asked so many times what we do for the kids in the community, this keeps them off the streets and a safe place, with the after school programs.”         

As Whitney Houston would say, "Let's give the boy a hand!"

As the other councilmen conceded, those in the audience started applauding.

Olly golly, the man does have a voice and he used it at the BEST. POSSIBLE. MOMENT. Oops, I’m repeating myself. Well done, sir. Very, very well done. (He shoots-he scores!)

Why the confetti? Why not? This may seem small, but it's a big thing. Not a special interest group is benefitting.

Curmudgeon would love to throw back a few shots with you, or buy you a drink, Morris, but I suppose that would defeat the purpose of being incognito. Maybe, one day  --  anyhoo, cheers for doing the right thing! It is almost a shame you are not running again…

(And as for the Boys & Girls Club? With their new board, they would do well to start promoting themselves in the community and what they do! If they need champions and need funding, it would be a smart move on their part.)

Peace, love, and drinks for the Morris.