The Windy City and More

I attended the National Association of Counties Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL this past weekend. It was really the first time that I have spent much time in the windy city. It is really all that everyone has ever said. We stayed at the Chicago Hilton and it is a wonderfully restored hotel. Located on Michigan Avenue, we could see the wonderful parks and gardens that Mayor Dailey has beautifully decorated in the heart of the city.

The NACO meeting is a well run conference and they had a great lineup of speakers and workshops. The officers of NACO have become good friends and I was happy to see that Bill Hansell completed a successful year and was gratefully turning over the leadership reins to Colleen Lankhammer. Colleen is a great lady and someone that I have a great deal of respect for. I spent a couple weeks last year with Colleen in Brussels, Belgium and we are working on rural issues through RUPRI, a rural policy group. I look for some great things from Colleen next year.

I was happy to meet Dr. Don Bartlette who is an inspirational speaker and a really great person. He is an American Indian and did not speak for his first several years of life. He was abused and beaten as a young boy and overcame a lot of obstacles. I hope that I can get Don to speak to an NLC event in the future. An interesting footnote: Don read the article on Inclusive Communities in USA Today and cut it out and sent it to his father-in-law. He said that he really enjoyed the article and was surprised to meet me at the conference. I was thrilled.

My good friends, Ron and Janie Watson were sitting in the front row during my speech to the NACO members. It really makes you feel good when you can see your friends at these meetings. As I was walking through the exhibit hall, I saw a display from the FBI and I stopped by and asked if they knew where the Fingerprint Division of the FBI was located. They laughed and said "Clarksburg, West Virginia, of course". I then found out that they were from Buckhannon and Grafton. What a surprise.

On a travel note: The American Airline flight out of OHare Airport was about to depart when a panel above some of the seats fell out. Talk about a scary moment. They had to work on it about an hour and then put us back on the plane. At least it was something on the inside of the plane. All in all, it was a great trip. Lots of fun and a lot of great experiences.