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Election: Mayor Rimeikis shares his views
Experience obviously matters to the voters, how does it help council better manage town affairs?
"The new town clerk and I had just finished reviewing the new council member orientation that we do. There's a big packet and a full day of briefings between the facilities. But I called her up and said, 'Forget about it!' That's a good thing because Bobby (Ryan) has been there for the issues, although they may be a bit different from when he was on council. But it's not like he hasn't been paying attention. The transition ought to be a lot easier and that's always good. Now we can go full speed ahead in the areas that we need to work on."
Why do you think town residents voted against change in this election?
"I think the people who claimed that there needs to be a change, they just don't feel like we've been responsive to their particular needs. I kind of reject the idea that we haven't been responsive. There are many examples of where we've been responsive. It goes back to the idea that you have to be responsive where you can be. Sometimes your hands are sort of tied, but you're hoping to have some sort of understanding. Running headlong over a cliff just to say you've done something isn't the right approach. When you have a super majority of council that are united in what the right approach is, you have to wonder, that many people can't be wrong. I think most people realize that the approach we've taken is sound."
Did you learn anything from this election?
"It just reaffirms once again that the people who live here can be counted on to do the right thing. There's going to be bumps in the road and for the most part, we work well as a group. Our meetings are thoughtful and business-like. There's still disagreement, but we're able to work through that and it doesn't become personal. So for the most part, we're doing the right thing."
Illegal immigration seemed to be a non-issue in this year's election. What are your thoughts?
"I don't know if it's a non-issue. I think it would be more accurate to say that it is not as pressing as other issues. The economy is correcting that. Everyday you see fewer and fewer people on Route 29, fewer day laborers."
Why was consolidation such a big issue for town voters?
"Once you look at it a little bit, it becomes obvious. A lot of it is loss of control of the services. Do they want the county board of supervisors to control the services in the town? In terms of representation, do you want nine people looking after your best interest or one? And then for some of the folks that have lived here for generations, they see it as kind of ironic that at the eve of our 250th anniversary, we would just have that all go away, and to what end?"
What are the next steps for the town in the consolidation issue?
"One of the requirements at this point is for the town and count to come up with an agreement on what the new county is going to look like without the town. In that agreement, there's some mandatory things that have to be listed and optional things that we need to decide upon. One of the mandatory things is that all the voters have to know the impact of all of this. We have to list all the assets the town and county has, combined. We have to list all of our debt, because once the town goes away, somebody has to take care of the bills that we still owe. You have to decide what you want to name the new county and things like that. Those are sort of easy, but the optional ones, there's a long list of those.
Once you decide upon all that, we'll put pen to paper and come up with a proposal that will be submitted to the county. They have to agree on it, because if they don't, it can't go to referendum. We have until January, but in order to get it on the November ballot, it has to be agreed to by both bodies by the end of August, with enough time for the Circuit judge to review it and approve it. It has to be submitted to them 60 days prior to the actual voting date. So, that gives us three months, depending on how fast we can write."
Besides consolidation, what are other issues facing the town in the coming year?
"We'll be issuing bonds shortly to take care of much needed capitol improvements, like road improvements. The Rt. 229 road widening is finally going to get started and of course, improvements to the wastewater treatment facility. We're going to move forward on the automatic meter reading project, which will make reading the meters and billing more efficient."
Do you foresee the police station project moving forward?
"That's on everybody's mind. We've got to move forward with that. That's one specific thing that was good because there wasn't a turnover on council. You've got the majority of council that still has the history of the police station when we first started six years ago and knows where we are today. It's still a priority and our limits now are that it takes so much land, three to five acres, and finding that three to five acres in a town that is built up."
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