There was a community meeting Monday afternoon, called "The Mayor's Meeting" since it had the mayor's staff from Anchorage at it.  Ironically...no mayor.

On the agenda was our town daycare where there are serious structural issues and it has been declared unsafe for the snow load we normally get...even though, the historical evidence is that it can hold a bunch of snow...including the 10 foot load 10 years ago.

I have two kids in the daycare, "The Short Louds," (my 4 year old twins).  And, 10 years ago, we had our two older twin girls in the daycare as well.  So, we've gotten a lot of use from it.  We're pretty passionate about it.  My wife and I were at the meeting.

Well, the meeting progressed with lots of complaints...who's at fault...is this "big government" coming down us.  There were, of course, good comments thrown in.  The long and short of it was this:

1. The Municipality of Anchorage owns the old building the daycare uses and has been providing maintenance.
2. The Muni now has an engineering report that says the building is unsafe for the snow and they can't, in good conscience (or without a fear of a massive lawsuit should a collapse happen) let the building be used.
3. There are three possible solutions that seemed doable and would keep the daycare functioning:  1) Use another community building -- which would eliminate its use by other groups, 2) Fix the roof -- which sounds great but can in no way be done this year, or 3) Have a licensed and bonded business contract with The Muni and the Daycare to clear the roof of any snow, absolving the Muni and the Daycare of liability if "something" were to happen.
4. THE SNOW IS COMING WITHIN SIX WEEKS OR SO!!!

This doesn't give us a lot of time and, frankly, the blame-game wasn't helping and wonderful ideas that were going to take years to materialize weren't helping either.  I got up to speak and began with Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All."  I didn't sing it...but I should have.



Oh...shortly after my impassioned speech, it was decided that they'd go the contract route and the daycare would not have a gap in service.

And...really..."I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way..."