I want to share an email I received from a woman who lives in Colorado; she was visiting Madison the weekend of Shake the Lake.

“I just visited Madison this past weekend as two of my children work at Epic. I love Madison. I think the sanitation people deserve praise because it is so nice to walk around a city that is super clean and beautiful!! I was impressed that the morning after the fireworks last Saturday night, the city was super clean and really nice to be out and about. This is probably the best Midwestern city I have ever visited. Keep up great work.”

This correspondence lead to some brief reflection and of course I wrote back and thanked her for her kind words. I told her our city employees are dedicated to their jobs and it was great to learn of her recognition of that. I do not think it’s any surprise to learn that most people who call or email city offices don’t do so to say “good job.” Trust me, we don’t expect that, we do our jobs anyway.

Our streets are clean, traffic runs smoothly, our neighborhoods have the support of not only neighborhood officers, but also folks from Housing, Community Development and other offices. Our Fire Department not only fights fires, but also works with youth and families on issues such as fire prevention and safety. We develop and maintain our streets, bike paths and sidewalks to provide safe modes of travel and our bus system is exceptional.

The Shake the Lake fireworks display was again a great show and an opportunity for families from all neighborhoods to congregate downtown for a really nice event. It was collaboration between the city, Festival Foods and Big Top Baseball and was another example of how we can do more when we work together.

Sometimes we don’t appreciate what a great city we have and I thank our visitor from Colorado for reminding us.

Stay well.