Dear Citizens of Grant City,
I decided to run for Mayor again because I would like to continue working with our city council to move our community forward and help sustain it for the future. We have some projects started that I would like to see through, such as the $5 million wastewater improvement project, the new shelter house at the pool park, a waterline project that will improve services for a number of people in the community and the demolition of a number of buildings around the square that have been abandoned or need to be torn down and removed.
I think the city is moving in the right direction and I would like to help keep it moving forward. If we want to bring in jobs, grow population and help our community grow towards the future; we must first take pride in our community and make it a clean, viable community to encourage growth.
One of my priorities would be removing the derelict buildings around our square. We have received estimates for the cost to demolition a number of them but the City cannot afford to pay over $975,000 at one time to get rid of them. We are prioritizing the buildings and hope to get rid of two or three this spring/summer depending on how much we can afford to put toward the cost. We need to improve the aesthetic value of our community in order to bring businesses/jobs to our community.
One of the city’s biggest challenges will be sustainable revenue. We do not want to raise taxes or rates. We want to keep the cost of living as low as possible for our citizens. When we have others providing water, gas, electric and other outside services and they raise their rates we have to pass those rate hikes on to the customers in order to sustain the services we provide. We have been collecting past due revenues to help build our general fund and we will monitor all past due accounts to ensure we keep our general revenue fund healthy. At some time in the future we may have to look at raising our tax rates but we will hold off as long as it is feasible to do so. Another challenge will be the continued cleanup efforts. We appreciate all the work those of you that have made to clean up your property’s but there is still a ways to go. We will continue those efforts so we can all be proud of our community!
I have served as Mayor for many years and also served 7 years on the city council before becoming Mayor. We have seen many improvements in our community over the years and we have many wonderful people in our community that have helped with all the improvement projects. We have had and currently have great city council members that are progressive thinkers and want to see our community grow towards the future. We live in a great community with low cost of living compared to other communities with a great school system and it is a great place to raise a family. With the new main waterline replacement we completed a few years ago and the upcoming wastewater project; hopefully we will be good for the next 20 or 30 years. I would appreciate the opportunity to continue moving our community forward and sustaining it for the future! Thank you to everyone that gives their time and efforts to make Grant City a Great Place to Call Home!!!
My husband Dan and I have lived in Worth County all our lives. We have been married 49 years and we raised a couple of good kids in this community. We have 4 grandchildren and we love spending time with them. Dan retired from MoDOT and I retired from the United States Postal Service as a Postmaster. I have always been very active in the community and hope to continue the efforts to keep Grant City sustainable for the future. I would very much appreciate your continued support in the upcoming election.
Thank you!
Debbie Roach, Mayor
City of Grant City
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