Happy Fourth of July!

July 1, 2015

I wanted to say thank you to all of our volunteers that have worked so hard on the Stage Coach Days celebration. The committee has spent many hours over the past year, they have added a few events to the celebration and their effort paid off again on a well executed plan. KTTC was in town with a camera crew and had an article during the news highlighting our celebration. I hope many of you had the opportunity to see this on the news. Thank you everyone that helped out with this event! I also wanted to thank everyone that took part in our event by dressing up in period attire, this truly makes the Mantorville experience unique and this is an area I continue to get many complements on from our visitors.

During the weekend I had the opportunity to speak to many of you and some of you mentioned areas hat needs the cities attention, we will be following up on those issues and thank you for taking the time to discuss your concerns and observations with me.

This coming weekend our nation celebrates it's birthday. I hope everyone is able to enjoy the weather, watch some fireworks and celebrate our nations independence. If during this weekend you see a member of our Armed services, remember to say Thank You for it is the soldier not the poet that has given us the first amendment and it is the solder that has paid for our freedom with his blood.

During our July 4^th celebration I encourage you to look up the story behind the Star Spangled Banner, the story is about incredible bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. The American forces were greatly outnumbered and out gunned and faced a determined foe. Baltimore was the next city in the British targets and the only thing in their way was Fort McHenry. The fort had a huge flag flying that could been seen for miles. While held prisoner by the British Scott Keys (the author of the Star Spangled Banner) watched the flag over the fort fly during an intense battle. What Keys did not know, watching from a distance, was the efforts of the brave soldiers to continually restore the flag during the fight. The story of Fort McHenry is just one of thousands, perhaps millions, of bravery and courage our service personnel have endured in the name of Freedom and Liberty! We as citizens owe it to them to keep these stories alive, remember their names and sacrifices and to ensure we only elect those that will honor and respect the values and principals for which we have fought for over more than 200 years. So as you watch the fireworks this fourth of July and see the “Rockets Red Glare” during the fireworks show think of the original “Rockets Red Glare” and keep all of our brave service men and women in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you again to everyone that is helping make our nation and our community a great place to live. God bless and have a great Fourth of July everyone!

Yours in service,

Chuck Bradford, Mayor - City of Mantorville
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.com