Mark’s Musings – June 26, 2019

Mark Fortune

It was a fantastic day – almost perfect in fact – for the Indian Mud Run as nearly 1,000 participants came to little ‘ol Coshocton County to test their mettle against some of the most challenging obstacles devised by the mind and creativity of man or woman. Participants were already limbering up well before 8 a.m. on Saturday morning and raring’ to go. The benefits to our community are enormous and the group of people that makes this happen each year deserves our appreciation. Thank you!

It’s cool that the fireworks are returning to the Coshocton County Fairgrounds – with activities planned for later in the afternoon and evening on Wednesday, July 3. The fireworks are slated to begin at approximately 10 p.m. The rain date is Thursday, July 4. You can find out more inside this issue of The Beacon.

There is a lot to celebrate in Coshocton County and you can find out more about many of the activities that are happening throughout the summer inside this edition of The Beacon in our annual “Celebrate Coshocton County” section. There really is a lot to see and do here in Coshocton County.

More times than not a disaster brings out the very best in people and the flooding of West Lafayette last week certainly would be a circumstance where this would be true. Private citizen’s, government, first responders, churches, businesses and organizations stepped up quickly to ensure that people had a place to go, water, food and support. Perhaps that last one is the most important in a situation like this. There are so many that deserve a shout out and hopefully over the next few weeks things will start returning to a somewhat normal level.

You also know that our community will pull together like always as family, friends, co-workers and neighbors work to clean up the mess left by last week’s flooding.

The amount of rain that parts of Coshocton County received in the past few weeks is incredulous. Four inches of rain in one hour is almost unheard of and more than streams and creeks can carry into the larger tributaries. The Walhonding River continues to flow at above normal levels for this time of year – many summers you would find a river that is half the width of the Walhonding at the Lake Park Aqueduct Bridge.

Let’s hope that we get some warm sunshine (like this past weekend!) and some nice breezes to continue drying things out – and that our farmers can get the hay made and get caught up on other needs. It has been a challenging season.

Our heart goes out to Linda and the entire Burr family as our community lost a loved member last week with the passing of Mike Burr. A positive man with an easy smile, Mike will be forever remembered for his courageous fight against cancer and how he fought the good fight. He was an inspiration to his family, friends and many, many others- and especially to the students and athletes at River View with the example he set of how to keep battling, keep persisting and most importantly, keeping one’s faith in the midst of hardship and suffering. Thank you for being a wonderful example. You will be missed.

Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion