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It has been my sincere pleasure to serve as mayor of Murphy for the past four years. I think we have accomplished a lot.
I say “we” because there is a tremendous amount of civic leaders in our community. These leaders are often passionately making good things happen without looking for any credit for their accomplishments. It is for this reason that I will not try to list them all.
Our merchants are a resilient group, and the number of businesses keeps steadily growing. Many of our merchants do not live within the city limits, and therefore cannot participate in city elections, yet they remain dedicated. We must continue to support all of our local businesses.
Our merchants and citizens faced the worst of Covid-19. My heart goes out to the families who have lost a loved one during this time. Our merchants faced severe restrictions, the loss of employees and the difficulty of the supply chain as a result of the virus.
I often hear complaints of too much traffic and a lack of available parking downtown, which is both a curse and a blessing. My thanks goes to the N.C. Department of Transportation for honoring my request to develop a preliminary downtown improvement plan that will improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety. Hopefully, the project will be funded and ready to start by 2023.
The DOT’s U.S. 64 project is somewhat painful for us during construction, but once complete is going to greatly improve vehicle and pedestrian safety, as the five lanes will be widened along with a sidewalk on both sides of the highway.
Our downtown was accepted into the Downtown Associate Community program on our first application, which is a precursor to being selected into the Main Street USA program. Murphy was one of six towns selected in our entire state. The potential improvements for our downtown are only limited by our imagination and will.
Our city council unanimously voted to become a nonpartisan board agreeing to work together in any way possible to make Murphy even better for citizens and businesses.
We have been approved to start construction of a new 56-unit apartment complex within our city limits as a start for our shortage of housing, which is directly impacting our ability to reduce unemployment. These apartments will be well appointed.
Our police department is well trained and committed to everyone’s safety and security. Our fire department is also well trained for both fire and rescue, and is considered one of the best in our state for our community’s size.
Our public works team has a demanding job keeping all of our infrastructure functioning. Many times I have witnessed grueling efforts that can go 24 hours a day, or more, regardless of the weather. There are miles and miles of pipe underground from Peachtree to Ranger School.
Our water department is led by the endless dedication of staff to ensure we have safe drinking water. They take great pride in doing so.
Our two administration staff members are professionally and diligently working to ensure correctness on taxes, fees, water and sewer billing and much more.
Finally, I am so proud of our town’s library. This is a treasure to our community, and I am happy so many of our citizens take advantage of it.
These departments are led by our city manager, who has also been successful in upgrading equipment, resulting in all departments being more efficient and responsive – and without raising taxes.
Thank you for supporting me over the past four years. Being mayor has left me being even more confident that Murphy’s glass is way more than half full.
I am confident our new mayor and council will raise the bar even higher over the next four years.
The writer is former mayor of Murphy.