May you live in interesting times. That familiar proverb can be seen as both a blessing and a curse.For Grand Forks residents, this is a time when city council and staff are embarking on some major investments. In addition to the water meter installation project, the city is also looking at repairs to major infrastructure like roads and sewers.Major projects, and how council deals with them, are often seen as a rod for councillors’ popularity. That “popularity” will be judged this November when residents will decide on the next council.Hopefully, voters will look past how a councillor has sided on one or two big issues and look at their overall “body of work”. Voters also need to think about how committed and hard-working a councillor is and how much they likely will be in the future.For those interested in joining council, the city offered a great opportunity at an information session on May 21 to learn some of the ropes.There is much more to the job than just making one or two decisions. It’s a very time consuming job. Every council meeting you have to make dozens of decisions that will impact different people depending on how you vote.As Mayor Taylor said recently, the best thing is to come out to council and learn the issues and to read up on the pertinent material as much as possible.

Grand Forks Gazette