Dear Rising Sun Residents,

As I sit down at City Hall for the last time, I wanted to convey my appreciation for the time I spent here. As the years turned to months, months to weeks, weeks to days and days to hours, I share the same belief today as I did in 2016: my tenure as mayor will be an opportunity I will forever cherish. I was incredibly blessed with the task to your leader for the past four years.  As a city, we are indebted to each and every one of you who have chosen to make our little corner of the world your place to live, to work and to raise your families. Whether we agreed or disagreed on decisions, you were always whom we had our minds. Thank you for celebrating in our successes, for having the courage to speak out when we needed to hear it and for being supportive when we felt vulnerable.

To Rising Sun Municipal Utilities (Erma, Sue, Kim, Scott, Dale, Dee, Bobby, Alan, Rob, Brandon, Isaac and the two Zachs), thank you for your hard work. Thank you for the times you were called out after hours and under extraordinary circumstances. Most importantly, thank you for always representing our city with the urgency, decency and professionalism our residents deserved.

To our Parks Department (Jamie and Kim), thank you for your commitment and creativity. You both have been incredible resources who continue to organize and offer programs our residents enjoy. Your passion for our city shows and we are grateful for having you on our team.

To our Main Street Director (Karrah), thank you for engaging our business owners throughout our city. Your determination has helped create positive momentum and capture a desire to make our city the best version of itself. You have done a wonderful job continuing to make the Navy Bean Festival a regional attraction.

To our Marketing and Grant Writer (Bryce), thank you for your creative influences. You pushed to modernize our city’s website, to advocate for our city with many grant requests and you’ve been the driving force to make our Fireworks Celebration an exceptional community event.

To our Project Manager (Mike), thank you for your resourcefulness.  You have been pivotal in securing grant funding these past three years to upgrade road and sidewalk infrastructure for our city. In addition to managing those larger projects, you also are the point person for arguably the least thankful job- code enforcement.

To our Street Department (Doug, Bobby, Brandon, Tim, Sleep and the litany of people hired as summer help), thank you for all you do, rain or shine. I couldn’t begin to scratch the surface of what all of your responsibilities are: mowing, street maintenance, pool maintenance, general maintenance and whatever else I threw your way. Honestly, it might be easier to highlight what you aren’t tasked to do. Thank you for being very responsive and diligent.

To our Police Department (Sherry, Brian, Laura, Rick, Wayne, Zach, Steven, Bryce and Austin): Thank you for your dedication. You’re a constant positive presence in our community and a vital resource to keep our city safe. This past year has been a difficult one, but your entire department handled it with incredible resolve. Thank you for always being there when our residents are at their most vulnerable. Your care and professionalism speaks volumes to the type of men and women you are.

To our Clerk Treasurer’s Office (Heather, Kathy, Mark and Audra), thank you for being so many different roles at the same time. At City Hall, all paths lead to your office and each of you navigate those so effortlessly. What I personally will miss is popping in to see how everything is going. Each of you know to make our residents feel like they are a priority.

To our Street Commissioner (Paul), thank you for always being there for our residents. Here’s a little known fact about Paul. I’m 98 percent sure his cell phone rings more than mine does at City Hall. He and his department get every issue that doesn’t neatly fall into other departments. The Street Department is the jack of all trades within our city. It probably isn’t fair to him and his department but thank you, nonetheless, for getting the job done.

To our current Police Chief (Rodney), you took on a difficult job under the most extraordinary of circumstances. I can’t thank you enough for being the steady hand when our city needed you most. This wasn’t a situation where you could naturally transition and train for it. Yet, with no hesitation, you jumped in because it’s the nature of who you are.

To our prior Police Chief (David), boy, this one is hard. Not a day passes I don’t think of you. You always knew when I was preoccupied with something. It was in your DNA, this innate ability to be the calming force in so many other peoples’ lives. Thank you for coming into my life when you did. I know I’m a better person today because of my experience with you.

To the most indispensible Clerk Treasurer in Indiana (Rae), thank you for our friendship. You never hesitated once to help lend perspective. My first few weeks as mayor could best be described as trying to drink from a firehose. You always had a way to reassure me and make everything so much less overwhelming. Thank you for all the laughs, tears and everything in between.

To the Mayor’s Secretary (Amy), I don’t know where to begin. You always represented my office with incredible care.  You jumped right into your role with limited training and navigated your way exceptionally well. You are a wonderful individual who always managed to see things I may not have noticed. Thank you for friendship and I can’t wait to hear about what’s next for you.

Last and certainly not least, to my wife and children (Gina, Mason and Megan), thank you for supporting me in this endeavor. It wasn’t always easy, but you made it worthwhile. You were a daily reminder of the path I chose. You encouraged me when I initially thought of this crazy idea to become our city’s mayor. Thank you for the sacrifices you made for me. Thank you for standing by me. I love you!

Without further ado, this is Mayor Bascom signing off for the last time.  Take care everyone!