I’ve been getting a lot of nervous phone calls lately. Jim C., a neighbor of mine, called the other day to allegedly line up a ride to an annual St.

Patrick’s Day party. In his 80’s, Jim has lived most of his life in Whiting.
He is a former history teacher who worked construction during the summers.
His phone call cut quickly to the chase, though, and he revealed the real reason for his call: property taxes.

“I’m scared to death, Brian,” he confessed. “I think they are really trying to do us in this time. What are they thinking?” I explained to him that the legislature was trying to ease the burden of his property taxes, that they were striving to make local government more efficient for him.

“But they don’t know anything about us. They don’t know what the Mayor has done to make things better. They don’t know how important this community is to us. They don’t know that we voted for Mayor Joe because we knew darn well he’d make a change, and that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be Mayor for much longer.”

I pointed out that some of what he said was true, but that the Mayor was working hard to make sure every State Rep & Senator knew about our story. I told him I was confident that once they had the facts, they would be sure to help.

“Great,” said Jim, “Just make sure that they don’t help us so much that we don’t have a City anymore.”