Get city council on right track

To the Editor:

In the 38 years that we have lived in Fairmont, we have never had a political sign in our yard or requested publicly that citizens vote for specific candidates. We feel that this is a very important election for the City of Fairmont and have realized this from past events that occurred this year in our neighborhood. We need the mayor and all council members to work together for the betterment of our City. We don’t expect all council members to agree on every agenda item, but we would hope that all council members would listen carefully and respectfully to each other and to the concerns of the citizens of Fairmont. Council members have their individual wards, but they are supposed to be working for all the citizens of Fairmont. We attended several council and planning commission meetings starting in June of this year. It was evident in those council meetings that a few councilors put the importance of a proposed campground above the welfare and safety of our neighborhood.

The developer of the land applied liquid manure 11 times in 21 days, with just enough time in between applications for the smell to never completely leave our neighborhood. Manure was applied sometimes just a few feet into the field behind our houses, at times spraying into the air and gushing out the back of the honey wagon. Most days during the month of June we could not sit outside on our patios, it smelled in our houses, our cars parked outside smelled like a hog barn, as did our dogs fur after taking them for a walk. One neighbor had to spray her bed down with lavender oil every night to mask the smell. We have a small business in our home, a hair salon, that has been in operation at this location for 22 years. This impacted our small business as well. When we asked for help, it saddened us that not all council members acknowledged that it was a problem or tried to work with us to find solutions, but we were so thankful that Bruce Peters, Wayne Hasek, Michele Miller, and Mayor Foster displayed a genuine concern, respect, and care for our home and neighborhood. They not only acknowledged that this wasn’t right, but they also came down to our neighborhood, some of them several times, to better understand, communicate, and experience what we were going through. We appreciated that our voices were heard and acted upon from these four individuals.

Jay Maynard has attended almost all council meetings the past 2-3 years. At our meetings, he would offer constructive input with well formulated ideas.

We feel that Charles Pearson for Mayor, Deb Foster for Ward 3, and Jay Maynard for Ward 1 would make up the best mix of people to get our council on the right track, as they would work together for the entire City of Fairmont. We would also encourage everyone to vote NO on all 10 Charter Amendment questions.

Rob and Ruth True

Fairmont