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Larry Paine
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March 16, 2011
The coming of spring has a lot of visuals that come with it—a new baseball season, basketball and hockey playoffs, a new bunch of tulips and daffodils. For those of use in the Midwest, it also means storm season. The spring storm season has been known for its wonder and powerful thunder and lightning storms. I love hearing the thunder and trying to count seconds from lightening to sound to see how far away the lightening really is. The down side of these storms is that sometimes they produce what a friend of mine calls a “tor-nasty.”
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Larry Paine
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February 3, 2011
Earlier this week when the weather was dreary, many of our Kansas managers were posting on our listserv about whether we should be closing City Hall due to the high accumulation of snow. Like many states, snowfall in Kansas was between 0 and 15 inches. Among the flurry (pun intended) of postings came a question about how communities determine how/when to donate pool passes or golf memberships or portions of utility bills paid to organizations that auction them off in silent auctions. One response came from Gerry Vernon, City Manager of Junction City. When
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Larry Paine
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January 9, 2011
I have a book recommendation. I just finished reading Buy-In (Barnes & Noble Link) by John Kotter (Amazon link) and Lorne Whitehead. This is a very good book that EVERY city manager/administrator should read. This book was written in a fable format which makes it an easy read. I bought the “e-book” version for my Nook reader. The book starts out describing a public hearing in a public library situation. There was a special committee that presenting a proposal that would provide computers to the library through a public/private partnership
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Larry Paine
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December 12, 2010
A post before Thanksgiving gave me an idea for a Blog posting. Actually, I intend to start a list that others will add to. My idea is “what is so good about working in a small community?” I will start with a few of my ideas and let’s see if we can’t get a list of 100. Here we go: 1. I can walk to work—from one side of town to the other. 2. My daily commute is less than it takes to warm the car! (Tomorrow morning’s low temperature is to be
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Larry Paine
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November 15, 2010
One of the things I wanted to write in the last post was the concept of "many hats." I learned in my first position in a small community that what I did would be someone's job if I worked in a larger community. I did finance, planning, community development, public relations, public works, and a few other things. I kidded others about my "many hats." You work in a small community so you know what I mean. What I would like to do in my contribution is look at the many hats and talk
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Larry Paine
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November 13, 2010
Several years ago, I read an article in PM about creating and using Blogs in the government arena. When I finished that article, I created and wrote a blog regularly about the town and the organization. Getting the opportunity to Co-host the Small Communities Group in the Knowledge Network will lead to more Blog writing. I hope the postings will open dialog about management in small communities and counties. I remember many times sitting at the state association meeting and discussing "how small is small." For my purpose, if you think you work in a small community,
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