Transcription
K. Jack Garrison is Mayor of the Town of Dumfries
By Jack Garrison
I would first like to take this opportunity to again express my appreciation to the citizens of Dumfries to serve as your mayor. I consider it a very serious responsibility and I will do my best to serve conscientiously and responsively to the needs of the community.
I feel our council has special opportunities during this period of growth to foster favorable and controlled conditions for growth. As a town with a Zoning and Planning Commission and a Public Works Committee, we can carefully evaluate requests for building and development and consider each as it relates to the total town's environment. It is the responsibility of the council also to guard our fiscal growth and keep the economic stability that we have fortunately inherited from our previous councils.
Since the rebirth of our town in June of 1961 many fortunate things have happened. At that time the town started with absolutely no money. Some of the citizens of the town made personal loans so we could get started. In the 15 years since then we have had a Town Hall that we are all very proud of; we purchased the Merchant Property where now stands the Weems-Botts Museum and Merchant Park; We also have another small park known as Tripoli Park located in the Tripoli Heights subdivision. We have our own Police Department; we have done some work and plan to complete the cleaning of Quantico Creek by this coming spring; we have just completed our third annual Christmas Parade which has drawn a lot of attention to the town, and we have many other projects on the planning board, yet to be completed that will be a great benefit to our town. In addition to these items we give our citizens free trash service, free street lights, and as I mentioned earlier our own Police Department.
It may seem that in 15 years we should have accomplished much more. You must remember, when our charter was reactivated in 1961 we had a population of less than 1000 people. We now have an estimated population of slightly more than 2000. All this has been done with the same tax rate that was used during the Civil War and it has not been raised.
We feel than we have a lot to offer to new residents, new businesses, and new industry.
My personal opinion is that government at any level should not only act on the people's behalf, but should encourage the people to act on their own behalf. Citizen participation in community projects and town events is the essence of their success. The mayor and council can and does encourage local service and church organizations to correlate their programs with town priorities and needs and encourage volunteer participation in town projects.
As a local government, the town council can respond to citizens' immediate governmental needs. I encourage all citizens to communicate with their elected officials and be mindful that they control the direction and destiny of Dumfries.Transcriber
Abbigail AlmLanguage
English