Well, Mount Vernon has its first female mayor by ~200 votes. To be honest, I’m shocked that Ms. Chesley won. I am happy she did, as I think she will do a great job for the citizens, but I never expected her to pull it out. I didn’t witness any campaigning or hear of any first hand. I only saw signs posted. Apparently enough people either wanted her or at least some change to elect her to the position of mayor. I wish her the very best!

The school referendum was trounced thoroughly. I have mixed feelings on this decision. On one side, we DO need a new school or massive renovation and upgrades. On the other side, this rushed-together proposal with “gifts” from the city was nowhere near the way it should be done. The school district must look at ways to trim the budget and hopefully create a surplus. If they don’t have a surplus, they will never convince me that they can afford anything.

Taxes cannot continue to be raised, and raised, and raised. You have to eventually stop and realize that the economy can only handle so much taxation. Otherwise, you will wind up with taxes for every taxing-body that equal over 100% of your pay/assets. At that point, where do you get the money to pay these taxes? You can’t.

City council elections were a wash for my preferences. Burgan and Wood both won, and I was hoping for Heck/Renshaw. At the very least, Burgan/Renshaw would have been okay in my mind. Unfortunately, Burgan and Wood will bring more high-dollar people to the council.

It isn’t that I mind “rich” people on council, what flips my switch is when they aren’t in touch with the issues close to the majority of citizens. An example is the Mitchell Museum – I like that it is there and I believe art is very important to people. What I don’t care for is the MM asking the city to support it by giving funds or favors.

Another example is the city paving the parking lot of Peoples National Bank. Now, this has never been proven to me, but I have yet to hear it rebuked by any official or the bank. You can only hear a story so many times before you start believing it or wondering if it is true.

Also, Mrs. Holt was elected unopposed. While I don’t think she is a bad person at all, I do think she needs to learn about conflict of interest. Well, maybe not. Dave and Rick never did call for a vote about putting the city’s “gift” to the school district on the ballot. So, she just stated her opinion, and did not actually participate in a vote related to her conflict of interest. Looks like that ploy didn’t work.