Monday topics widespread

What are Port Aransans unhappy about?

Very little - and pretty much everything, according to Mayor Claude Brown's First Mondays.

Brown started what he calls First Monday in July as a means to ensure citizens the opportunity to sit and talk with the mayor about anything that's on their minds.

(So far, only one "First Monday" - August - has actually been on the

first Monday of the month. July's was delayed because of the Independence Day holiday, and this month's First Monday was postponed on account of Labor Day.)

"There's no real pattern," Brown reported from behind the mayor's desk during the September First Monday on Monday, Sept. 11. "If anything, more people seem to be concerned about streets and drainage than anything else. All I can do is point to council actions and assure them that we're working on the problem."

The council has told City Manager Michael Kovacs to fix drainage on Oleander Street, which will reportedly alleviate flooding on Avenue A and on Alister Street at Beach Street, using cash on hand. That project was given a priority.

Aside from that topic, however, Brown said residents have spoken about a variety of subjects, including one man who was concerned that the street striping on J.C. Barr Boulevard, which runs through Roberts Point Park, wasn't done correctly.

Brown is in the office on the first Monday of the month from 9 a.m.noon and from 1-3 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling city hall, 749-4111.