By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Williston City Council President Justin Head said goodbye Tuesday as he ended his three years of service in municipal government, saying it was both challenging and satisfying and he would like to serve again.

            Head said he is taking time off from government to spend more time with his family but he has definite plans to return to the city council if the people of Williston will have him back.

            “As I joked earlier, I’m not moving out of the city limits. I’m taking some time to spend with my family. My son’s graduating this year. My daughter’s in middle school,” he said. “I can safely say I will be back if the citizens will have me.”

            When he decides if he wants to run again, he hopes he is in a contested race that will require actual voting. Council members are frequently elected without opposition.

            Head looked out into the audience and said he was heartened to see a lot of people taking an interest in their city government and participating in the city council meeting.

            “For me, and I think I speak for everyone up here, to have a meeting like we have here tonight where citizens show up and talk and be involved; it makes a world of difference,” he said. “We don’t want to be five people up here trying to run the whole city for everyone. We need input, we need comments; sometimes it’s not good, sometimes it’s not fun, sometimes it’s tough matters that have to be addressed but sometimes there are great things that happen.”

            Head told the audience he has seen “truly great things happen” during his time on the council though he acknowledged that the city had lost good employees and good council members.

            “But it’s going to be continuously changing; that’s the nature of the beast, but we see a lot of positives, people have been brought on staff, citizens have stepped up and got involved,” he said.

            He commended Jackie Appling and her citizens group for coming together and bringing about positive changes to Cornelius Williams Park and he commended those involved in bringing improvements to Heritage Park.  He said the community has made huge strides and he urged people to continue moving forward to take advantage of the momentum.

            “I’m going to ask all of you to continue to work together for the greater good of the citizens of Williston and let’s move forward with this positive power that we have right now, and for the citizens; I just ask that you stay involved, hold these people (council members) accountable but try to help them. There’s nothing worse than having elections that are always unopposed. We should have people wanting to sit up here and serve our community,” he said.

            Mayor Jerry Robinson pretended to wipe away tears as Head spoke. The council president kidded Robinson that he didn’t look sincere.

            As part of the consent agenda, the council passed a resolution declaring Michael Cox, Elihu Ross, Marguerite Robinson, and Darfeness Hinds as having been elected as councilmembers in March 2 city election. None had opposition.

            Hinds is the newest member of the council. Head said she told him she was fired up and ready to serve the community in her new role as an elected official.

            COVID Closes City Hall

            City Manager Jackie Gorman said City Hall was closed all last week due to an outbreak of COVID-19.

            She said several people tested positive for the virus and many other employees also had to be quarantined due to their exposure to those with the COVID-19 virus.

             “Half our people were off. They’re still not all back. We’re looking at the future and how we can handle it better. We learned from this,” she said.

            Gorman said the finance and planning departments were entirely shut down. Some of the COVID problems were in customer service.

            “Seeing it was important, we shut the door. I just didn’t want anyone else sick,” she said.

            Mystery Store

            Gorman said Popeye’s is doing a brisk business and she is certain O’Reilly auto parts and Tractor Supply are coming to the new commercial development at the former school site, but she said BluRock Commercial Real Estate hasn’t revealed the identity of the fourth business that will locate at the shopping center.

————–

City of Williston Regular Meeting April 6, 2021; Posted April 6, 2021