Wow

Wow! The most amazing thing happened. I met a really hot girl! She's older than me and will be going to university soon, but wow! So hot! Cliantha, nice name for a hot girl! Maybe I will try and ask for her number, she said that she'll be at the formal, maybe we can dance there and fall in love. Hot!

Boys!

There are not many eligible boys in the hood. I wonder where I will find my husband! Apparently not here! We'll see, the High School Formal is this simday and I am excited, I have a cute dress and will get my hair styled and maybe there will be other boys there...it doesn't matter too much right now, I'm focused on work and school and building skills and relationships. Sometimes mom lets me go along with her to The Centre and listen to the meetings and observe her work. It's neccessary since I want to be the hood president like her...one day.

Hood Council Note: Food Expo

The kickoff ceremony for the Food Expo has begun! I gave a speech and introduced some key players. Thankfully, the Food Expo is pretty standard in Apple Valley, we've been participating for so long that things run like clockwork. I've been trying to encourage other hoods to participate in the Food Expo as well, who knows, maybe we'll have the honor of hosting the Expo again someday...we'll see.

Newspaper

Should we publish the paper online? Clark wants more exposure than the local newspaper, hihi, too bad he didn't marry a Kent, then he'd be Clark Kent-hahaha!

He already manages the website now and he's the correspondant for STAR, but I suppose an online version of the paper won't hurt...I guess.



We're waiting on our customized paper dispenser to come from the factory and we're going to order some signs for the buildings as well.

Hood Council Note: Future Plans

With the new term, here are my plans as the President

Construct a Bank
Add bank office at The Centre. Possible on bottom floor of the ballroom and decrease ballroom size to upper floor only. Bank would have ATM capabilities, office space for Financial Director to assist with loans and savings accounts. Financial Director will oversee this renovation and implementation.

Re-Establish fines/community service for conflicts

• Construction on jail due to be complete on simMonday. Will have three cells, recreation room and cafeteria, outdoor exercise space and jailor's apartment with two bedrooms.
• Jailor will be Jarvis Forrester-Miller, due to possession of aging wavier and position on the force. No salary will be given except a small stipend when inmates are housed.
• Fine list needs updating as well as a process for punishing residents and townies.
• Renovation of The Centre to include a courthouse for conflicts and office space to process data. Can reduce size of library so that it resides in the upstairs office space, renovate lower space to have the courtroom for trials and administrative offices.
• Judge will be Hood Council President or the sim that holds that position downtown. If jurors are needed, a random selection of adults from the hood will be chosen to serve for the trial.

Increase tourism

• Order additional custom objects: maps, poster prints, trinkets, etc. Also get map created of the hood to hang in the Welcome Center instead of the TV.
• Keep online Office of Tourism updated with flights and events.
• Hold raffle for a free trip to Apple Valley. Including airfare, accomadations, food, and spending money. ($5000)
• Create a Apple Valley Flag

Change timetable

• Follow Baleen Island's way of keeping time: instead of simdays, use Season # Simday #

Further relationship with affliates

• Email/chat with spokessims from affliate hoods more often
• Travel to affliate hoods

What, like a garden, never stays the same?

Life. Yes, life always changes. The twins are doing well and will be off to university before we know it. They both have jobs, Fiona is a secretary at a law firm, Fredic is a drive thru clerk (heaven only knows why, that boy cna't cook!). My eldest daughter has left the hood, now both of my older children are elsewhere, Ayanna was elected for another hood council term and she's vying for SUN Core president and to top it off there are rumors that Tatiana may sell Euphoria...I'll be out of a job if that happens.

Affordable Housing

I wish mama was still around, she would know what to do.


Apple Valley needs to address the affordable housing situation. Instead of allowing sims to own multi-family housing units, we are now leasing them by the week. This only affects the housing on Fuji (The Fuji Flats I like to call them) and the townhomes on McIntosh. This doesn't affect the Fresh Flora property since it's owned by the owner and they sublet space to thier current trainee...for now. I hear that they will stop subletting the space.

After reclaiming some of the units, we now have four units available for rent. Two flats on Fuji and two duplex units on McIntosh. The Apple Valley Boarding Home has three rooms available now. The Forrester-Millers are moving to the new jail and that will free up a home for sale on Granny Smith. I'm curious to see how that will pass. There are two families living in flats that are eligible for the home, but I'm not sure if one of them would buy it since...well, they seem a bit more on the modern side and the homes on Granny Smith (and elsewhere in the hood except on Fuji) are a bit more traditional.

We might start having a limit on how long sims can stay in the rental units-perhaps two simweeks (14 simdays) would be enough. That would give graduates enough time to save money and then buy a home or move into the family home again.

New Term

The votes are in and the new hood council will be effective this simSunday, which leaves simSaturday for the old council members to finish unresolved business. The only new sim on the team is the Community Director, Rayne Wilsonoff replacing Leroy Mendenhall. Ka'obi Sweeny returned as a permenant member due to the anti-aging wavier she has and I am back as well. The hoood council is entirely females-girl power!

I have a lot of ideas for the new term, I think we need to establish a scholarship for out-of-hood students to come to the university. It would help bring in new blood and DNA, which is essential to a small hood. The census says that we're shrinking, too much death and emmigration and not enough births. I don't think it's a problem...yet.

The Office of Tourism is open and Clark Grey manages that site and arranging the travel into and out of the hood. We're trying to make the visa system more automated and hopefully we'll have more visitors come to the hood. We could use the simoleans.

The construction has started on a jail, we need something besides fines to enforce the laws. With the new jail, we'll need at the very minimum a judge, two lawyers, and jailer. Thankfully we have our jailer-Jarvis Forrester-Miller, he will be the permenant jailer since he and his wife have an anti-aging wavier due to her international assignments. We'll need to post openings for the lawyers and judge. Thankfully, Fiona wants to go into law. So we'll have a lawyer pretty soon. I hope she follows in my footsteps and become a spokesim. She seems to want to, but will she?

Other jobs needed in the hood: we have a Manager for the Medical Centre, but Jan needs help, thankfully she has talked to a university student who is interested in working there after school. We need more military, we only had two military sims and one is dead and the other an elder. I suppose we need to build a military training base sometime soon, but it's hard to see the need for them when we are not in the middle of a conflict and haven't had one.

Changes

Mother is dead. We're going to have a small family memorial service and then send her to the memorial gardens parque. My nephew has moved to Simmington Hills to start a bakery. I'm proud of him for going forth with his dreams. I'm a SUN Core member-I took mother's spot. I suggested the idea that hoods create thier own office of tourism, I suppose Apple Valley must lead the way.