City Council Election: Donald Steveson

NLJ: Please tell us why you want to hold this office, and what you intend to accomplish if elected. Please be specific about your goals and objectives, so our readers can measure your progress over the course of the term. Also tell us what qualifications and characteristics you possess that will help ensure that your stated goals can be achieved. (The same question was posed to all candidates for the General Election.)
 

I currently hold the office of city council and would like to continue to serve on the city council offering my time and commitment to the city council position. I believe I have been able to learn more about the city operations and how we must budget expenses based upon our income. I have also learned that this is not as easy as most would think, as the city does provide may services to the city residences and each service must pay for each and balance for each account.
When you ask what specific goals and objectives I intend to accomplish, I needed to think on this awhile as this question is not an easy one to answer. I look at this office as not a one specific goal in mind to complete and we are done. We have so many projects and goals, but we are also limited in resources such as, the money to spend on these projects. We have street repairs and maintenance to complete and, I believe, us as a council has done a good job at addressing these issues in the past several years as we have completed sections throughout town in the past several years. I know this will take time to get to all that needs repaired, but we need to address each as we have the money to complete these projects. We must remember when I look at projects I am one vote and need the majority of the other council members to be on board to move a project along. I need to be sure this is in the best interest of the city residents also.
I also have a goal in mind for downtown that was discussed with one of our economic development meetings and would really like to persue getting this off the ground. I have made the first steps in the development process and need to put the other steps in place to see what we can do to help beautify our Main Street appearances.
My qualifications and experience for this council position would be that I have been involved with the community in one way or another for the past 47 years. I understand what it takes when designing projects from the implementation to the completion. This could be from our street projects to water projects. I look at everything that comes before the council with an open mind and I do not have an agenda or axe to grind while I am holding this seat. I have been on the Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department for 34 years and held the fire chief’s position for two terms, and dealt with budgets within. I am currently the LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) chairman and have held this position since 2008.