City elections give hope for progress

Change. Probably the most common word thrown about in the weeks leading up to the municipal elections in Demopolis, change is what occurred Tuesday evening.

Whether or not that change is good and just how much of an impact it will have has yet to be seen. And there are as many opinions on the matter as there were voters.

The city did not get wholesale changes. Mike Grayson retained his mayoral office while Mitchell Congress kept his seat at the head of District 2. Couple that with the fact that incumbent Bill Meador ran unopposed in District 4 and you have half of the city’s governing body returning.

But there are three fresh faces that will take their seat at the council table. Charles Jones Jr. will represent District 1, D. Harris Nelson will sit atop District 3 and Cleveland Cole will represent District 4.

It is impossible to predict exactly what the next four years will hold for the six men that lead the council. Will their administration be considered an abject failure? Will they make the progress for which many have been clamoring?

The one thing that is almost for certain is the city should finally have some fresh ideas. The newly-elected individuals all seem eager to sit down and do what is best for the city. And, the idea of doing what is best for the city seems to have been a foreign concept for the last several months.

It will be refreshing to see what someone as young and as enthusiastic as D. Harris Nelson can bring to the table. It will be nice to see someone as level headed as Charles Jones Jr. helping to make decisions to improve the city.

And it will be nice to Mike Grayson get some vigor back in his vision. Grayson has not been a perfect mayor during his first term, but he has presented great ideas and helped to lay out plans that would prove good for the city long term. But, personal agendas began to trump the city’s agenda. Good ideas grew stale and were tabled indefinitely and we came to a virtual standstill as a city.

Maybe now, Grayson can succeed or fail of his own volition and the new city council can learn lessons from its predecessor. Egos and personal agendas have no place on the city agenda. If our new council can agree on that, we can finally get somewhere as a community.