January 10, 2008

Mayor wants your vision for Ritzville’s future

By Stephen McFadden

Publisher

With an eager audience of her supporters, Mayor Linda Kadlec proudly took the oath of office on Tuesday night, becoming the first woman to serve the city as mayor.

Once the oath of office had been administered by City Clerk/Treasurer David Grove, Kadlec delivered a brief but passionate speech, acknowledging the city’s staff and leadership.

Kadlec used the moment to introduce a new effort to garner community input. She is asking every member of the community to consider “What is your dream for Ritzville?”

 “It is time to say good-bye to the past chapter of our lives, though I want to say in the past eight years we have accomplished many things under the Mayorship of Craig Ulleland,” Kadlec said. “But now it’s time to open up new chapters in our lives. We have many challenges and tough issues ahead.

“You won’t always like nor appreciate some of our decisions — no matter how necessary they are — but my door is always open for discussion and communication. I have a team of really key people on this council along with terrific department heads and I plan to utilize each and every one of them. I believe in teamwork!

“Along with my campaign team I have worked very hard to get to here and I consider it an honor and a privilege to step into the office of Ritzville’s new mayor,” Kadlec said.

“Together we will work very hard to see that Ritzville continues to be a town you can be proud of.

“There is a new project in the works here in town that I want to tell you about. It’s called “What’s your Dream for Ritzville.” You will each have an opportunity to put a voice to your dream. So take some time and think on it. I challenge each of you and I challenge this town…What is your dream for Ritzville? Let us know. This is your town.”

Members of the community are being invited to write down their “dream” for the city’s future and then deliver their dream wishes to the Ritzville Area Chamber of Commerce at 111 West Main Avenue.

The dreams will then be displayed at the chamber office.

Readers can clip out the form at the bottom of the front page of The Ritzville Adams County Journal (or download a pdf of the form), jot down their dream and then mail it or hand deliver it to the chamber office.

Kadlec comes into her new role as mayor with a list of projects and initiatives that she plans to investigate with the city council to determine what ways the city can be improved.

Tuesday she asked the council’s parks and recreation committee, which oversees the city park, municipal golf course and the cemetery, to consider a tree ordinance that will provide a tree management plan for the city.

Kadlec asked the finance committee to review the 110 Fund Application process. She noted that some of the state’s rules have changed and said the council needs to “tweak” the application.

The public works committee was asked to meet with Larry Swift, the city’s public works director.

Kadlec said Swift has an ambitious list of capital improvement projects for the city.

The committee, Kadlec said, needs to meet with Swift and then make some recommendations.

After asking the three committees to address the various issues, Kadlec noted that these are the January projects for those committees.