All four Stephenville council incumbents to run for another term

Advertisement

By AMANDA KIMBLE
TheFlashToday.com

STEPHENVILLE (February 9, 2017) – Four incumbents up for re-election on May 6 have officially filed for their shot at another term on the Stephenville City Council.

Mark McClinton, Place 1; Doug Svien, Place 3; Rhett Harrison, Place 5; and Sherry Zachery, Place 7 have each submitting applications for a place on the ballot, according to City Secretary Cindy Stafford.

Harrison is looking to his second two-year term and said serving citizens continues to be a rewarding experience.

“I believe wholeheartedly Stephenville’s greatness derives from the substance of its’ citizenry,” Harrison said. “Therefore, the citizens are deserving of a city government indicative of their needs. I remain pro-citizen, and believe in accurate representation for the people of Stephenville. This is best demonstrated by my strict adherence of my election platform resulting in an extremely conservative voting record.”

Harrison remains optimistic and said the current council is involved in a number of worthy endeavors, including economic development and job creation.

Rhett Harrison, Place 5

“There are valuable business additions in progress that I would like to see come to fruition,” he said. “We also continue to move towards ways to improve police, fire and EMS. This council has spent considerable money on city streets, and I champion more improvements. I am in favor of certain elements related to the Eastside Sewer Project along with other sewer enhancements about town.” 

Harrison said continued forward progress is important, but he also noted the importance of eliminating wasteful spending and the implementation of greater measures of efficiencies, as well as the need to always be mindful of budgetary constraints. 

Meanwhile, Harrison has no problem pointing to some of the challenges, saying he has become aware of many during his first term, including the large and ongoing challenge of balancing the overall basic needs of citizens with available resources.

“The effects due to loss of key personnel early on, the extensive use of third party consultants and addressing cost intensive projects prematurely and without proper citizen input have all been most challenging,” Harrison said. “The latter has been somewhat magnified when incorporating a predetermined sense of urgency along with the lack of financial sources. I find that common sense business approach to government has sometimes been met with opposition. Change is inevitable for a community our size. With change, comes great challenges and responsibility.”  

A businesswoman who has successfully run a local small business for years, Zachery said her perspective “rounds of the views representing our population.”

While the council is involved in a number of projects and discussions, Zachery said there are several she hopes to see through to the end, including reasonable term limits for council members, pushing hard for government efficiency, and finding creative ways to make hard earned tax dollars go farther.

Zachery says she will maintain her focus on “fiscally conservative budgeting,” with minimum impact on taxpayers.

“I voted in favor of a tax reduction last year,” she said.

Sherry Zachery, Place 7

Meanwhile water and sewer systems and city streets are also a concern for Zachery, who said she wants to ensure the council doesn’t lose momentum on minimizing the impact of the Proctor water pipeline while securing underground water resources for the future.

In addition to the need for more widespread street improvements, Zachery is among the council members who believe the Eastside Sewer Project – a proposed multimillion dollar renovation and expansion project – needs to follow an avenue of obtaining citizen input, partnerships for funding and ensuring fiscal oversight so the scope of the project only addresses current citizen needs and the immediate future.

Revenue and development are also important for Zachery, who would like to see the council to continue to take favorable stances on encouraging tourism and industrial growth to bring higher paying jobs to Stephenville.

McClinton and Svien spoke to The Flash soon after submitting their applications on the first day of the filing period, January 18. See the earlier story for comments from each incumbent.

As of Thursday, the incumbents remained uncontested. Political hopefuls have a little more than a week until the Friday, February 17 deadline.

Potential candidates can find election information and an online application on the Texas Secretary of State website.

Application packets may also be obtained from City Hall.

Other seats on May 6 ballots include two on the Stephenville ISD board of trustees, five on Dublin City Council and those of two Dublin school board members. Check back with TheFlashToday.com for more information on filing in those jurisdictions.


Advertisement

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.