Mayor Rob Marlowe
Some weeks seem to go on forever, others flash by. This past week was one of the latter.
I spent Monday wrapping up all the odds and ends necessary for me to be able to take off for three days. I didn’t know it at the time, but Bob Langford was able to get the West Pasco Historical Society to sign off on the final details necessary for the city to improve the parking on the part of Sims Park that the Society leases for the Museum Monday evening. Thank you Bob.
Tuesday morning brought a pre-dawn trip to Tampa International. Shortly after sunrise, we were on the way to Los Angeles and then on to San Diego. We were in the car, heading for my son’s home in Vista when the city council meeting started back in New Port Richey.
I joined the city council meeting by cell phone while Deputy Mayor Bill Phillips ran the meeting in my absence. Participating by phone isn’t as easy as you might think. There is something like a three second delay between when you speak and your voice comes back over the connection.
Tuesday night’s council meeting also included a report by Kimberly-Horne on the status of the Sims Park makeover. I had to ask later how the presentation went as it was unintelligible over the phone. It is my understanding that the project is largely on schedule and should be completely finished within a few weeks of it’s mid-December target date. The ampitheater is on track to be ready for the Cotee River Bike Fest in three weeks.
It was somehow appropriate that one of the items on the agenda was a proposal to upgrade the AV system in the council chambers. I can tell you from Tuesday’s first hand experience how badly we need this upgrade. I’m pleased to tell you that it was approved. The upgrades will make it easier for folks at home to follow along with the meetings in the future.
Wednesday was the reason my wife and I made the trip to California. At 9am Pacific time, the sailors of Assault Craft Unit Five gathered for a Pinning Ceremony for ten new Chief Petty Officers. 
Among the ten was New Port Richey’s own Steven Marlowe. Carolyn and I joined Steven’s wife Aiko in pinning his Chief Anchors to his lapels.
Thursday was another travel day, with us getting home about 2:15am Friday morning.
The Leadership Pasco Class of 2016 toured New Port Richey Friday morning and I was able to welcome them bright and early Friday morning to New Port Richey at the Recreation and Aquatic Center. I left there and headed to my office for more coffee!
Saturday morning brought the Cotee River Cleanup I mentioned in last week’s NPR Note. Over 100 people showed up to help clean up the river, Orange Lake and surrounding areas. Thank you to everyone who participated. The Suncoast News has a great video of the cleanup effort.
I cleaned up two of our smaller parks, including the Jasmine Park down Jasmin Drive from my house. An interesting side note is that we have street signs spelling “Jasmin” both ways. (Jasmin is the correct spelling, but confusion about the spelling dates back to the late 1920’s / early 1930’s.) The title abstract for my house has both spellings on various documents. On the park sign it is spelled as “Jasmine”, so you can add this discrepancy to your early New Port Richey trivia.
The other park I cleaned up was the Cotee River park at the north end of Astor Drive.
I spoke about the lack of a central calendar last week. I’m going to continue to advocate for better coordination among the various players so that you can easily find things that you might enjoy. There are four Rec. Center events coming up that you might find interesting:
The first one will be a free movie this Saturday night at the Rec. Center. It’s not quite as nice watching movies at the Rec Center as it is to watch them in the Park, but we’ll just have to rough it until the Sims Park makeover is finished in a few months.
This series of movies have proved massively popular, with over a thousand folks showing up for some of the movies earlier this year.
The second one is an art exhibition that will be held at the Rec Center in two weeks.
I understand from Elaine Smith that there is still room if you’d like to exhibit your artistic talent.
I never made it much beyond stick figures at Richey Elementary, so you won’t find any of my art work on display. I’m still planning on going by to enjoy the work of our talented local artists.
The Youth Advisory Board will be hosting a “Zombie Fun Run” out on Plathe Road on October 17th. The run is open to elementary and middle school students. Kids are encouraged to dress up and it should be a lot of fun.
Finally, we’ve got the annual Fall Puppy Paddle in the Rec Center pool coming up on October 31st. 
This ought to be lots of fun. My daughter-in-law and her two dogs should be in town by then, so this will be a “must do” event for the Marlowe family. If you’ve got a dog, I hope you’ll take advantage of this event for a lot of fun for both you and your pet.
With everything going on in New Port Richey, it is nice to see that people are beginning to notice. Bay News 9 did a very nice piece on New Port Richey this weekend.
This coming week includes the second budget hearing, which will be at 7pm on Wednesday, September 23rd. Based on our discussion two weeks ago, I’d say that there is a very good chance that we will actually approve a LOWER tax rate than we have this year. It should be an interesting meeting.
Just before the hearing, at 6pm, there will be a ribbon cutting at Roses’ Bistro right across the street from the Richey Theatre. I’m planning on being there and then heading straight over for the budget hearing.
Till next week.
Rob Marlowe, Mayor