Horses of a Different Color

Have you seen the splash being made by the colorful horses around town?

And on the Community Calendar on the City's homepage? The "Horses of a Different Color" fund-raiser for Main Stay Therapeutic Riding Program dominates the City's calendar. The question in my mind is why does it appear on every day of the calendar?

It is not an event. The program appears to be a massive fund-raiser for a not-for-profit business located 20 miles from Woodstock near Richmond, Ill. The horses are nice. About 26 of the painted horses are located around town. They will be auctioned on Labor Day. Where will the proceeds go? To Main Stay.

You can buy a horse for a $7,500 donation, or you can just buy a plaque for a horse for $2,500 donation. To Main Stay, of course. And the City is donating space and even a little money out of the motel/hotel tax kitty.

I guess this gets my attention because for months I have been suggesting to the City that official meetings of the City Council, Boards and Commissions not be removed from the calendar about three seconds after a meeting is over. But they are. However, the Horses, which are not even a City meeting, remain on the calendar for weeks (months).

The only part of the Horses that should be on the calendar is the Labor Day auction. That's an "event." And the other meetings of the City Council, Boards and Commissions? They should stay on the calendar as a historical record of meetings in Woodstock.

Why are meetings immediately removed? Because the computer is programmed to remove them. All that needs to happen is for someone to remove the "x" from the box that asks "__ Delete meeting after it is held?"