I am preparing to take my son to Boy Scout camp in a couple of weeks. When you go camping today, you often hear the principle of "Leave No Trace." Growing up in Scouts, I learned a different from founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who said, "Leave it better than you found it."
While "Leave No Trace" is crucial, Baden-Powell's principle of "Leave It Better Than You Found It" takes it a step further. This philosophy encourages us not just to preserve but to actively improve our surroundings. It's about taking positive actions that enhance our environment and community, ensuring that our contributions leave a lasting, beneficial impact.
Imagine a Yukon where we, as community leaders and residents, embraced a "leave no trace" approach. There would be no change—no positive or negative impact—everything would remain the same. Unfortunately, that would be impossible. Even if we "left no trace," our world and our city experience entropy each day. Our aging infrastructure, streets, pipes, sewers, traffic lights, and other city assets would continue to decay.
"Leave No Trace" may work for a weekend camping trip, but "Leave It Better Than You Found It" is the more sustainable philosophy for the long term, especially for our city. We must embrace Lord Baden-Powell's aspirational approach.
"So what?," you may asked. "Mayor, what are you going to do about it?"
For our beloved City of Yukon, I am committed to focusing on the necessary investments—our streets, sidewalks, wastewater treatment plant, sewer lines, water pipes, and every other part of the city's critical infrastructure.
Having toured our wastewater treatment plant last week, the once-in-a-generation investment we are making over the next two years is sorely needed. Two of our three clarifiers are not operational, our plant cannot pump treated water to the river when the river is at higher-than-normal levels, and our diffusers in our aerobic treatment tank are overdue for replacement. Maintenance, repairs, refurbishment, and even replacements have been deferred for too long.
No more. It does no good for the city to have strong bank account balances while our wastewater treatment plant suffers from deferred maintenance. We must invest for our city and the city our children will inherit.
That is the vision and our focus for the next few years. The wastewater treatment plant is a visible example, but we won't stop there. We have already budgeted more dollars to fix roads, pipes, and sewers. We are reinvesting in public safety with a world-class training tower for our fire department, as well as vehicles and tools for our police department, including breaching tools in every officer's vehicle that can save precious seconds when lives are on the line.
Let's leave it better than we found it.