Candidate Q&As: Grady mayor

The following are Q&As with candidates for Grady’s contested mayoral race. The election is March 6.

Kodie Weese and Wesley Shafer are seeking a four-year term. Shafer is the incumbent. Candidates were given the same questions, and asked to answer them on the spot.

Wesley Shafer has been Grady’s mayor for 20 years, and served eight years on the city council prior.

Why do you want to run?

Well, I’ve had this job for 20 years, I’d like to have it for four more. We’ve got some projects going I’d like to see finished.

What do you feel qualifies you for the position?

I was on the council for eight years before running for mayor and I’ve got 28 total years experience. I can work with the Municipal League, work with the legislators, have good office staff.

What’s an issue you want to tackle during your term?

Just to see the projects that we’ve got going finished. As small as Grady is, there’s not a whole lot to do, but we’re working with wind farms and different things. We’ve got a project to redo the park up by the school (and) chip seal our streets again; we’ll do that this coming summer.

What is one simple thing the village or council could do to improve the lives of its residents?

About all we can do is continue what we’re doing and work the projects and work with the Municipal League and our Legislature, get the (legislation) passed, that will help our village.

Is there anything the village or council currently handles that you think would be better in the hands of private citizens?

No. If you mean our water system, our streets, all those kind of things, no. I don’t think anybody can do it any better than the city’s doing.

Kodie Weese is a medical billing contractor and 2003 graduate of Grady High School.

Why do you want to run?

I want to bring my community and my village back to where it used to be. Bring more things back that we used to have in the village and have more things for our youth. I want to make some changes.

What do you feel qualifies you for the position?

I guess I feel qualified because I grew up here and spent most of my life here in this community and know a lot about the village and know a lot of people in the village. I think that would qualify me to be a mayor and help the village. I guess my knowledge of the village and the people in the village.

What’s an issue you want to tackle during your term?

An issue I want to tackle specifically would be fixing the village park up for the kids in the village and give the youth in the village something to do.

What is one simple thing the village or council could do to improve the lives of its residents?

I feel like communicating more with the village of what they can do, and I guess just bringing the village more in to decisions they’re making for the place that we live.

Is there anything the village or council currently handles that you think would be better in the hands of private citizens?

No I don’t think there’s anything they handle that might be better in the hands of private citizens, but just like the last question, I think the things they handle might work out better if they let the citizens of the village be involved.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Jamie Cushman