Cardwell mayor trying to whip community into shape

In a city in as much turmoil as Cardwell a strong, central leader is needed to whip the city back into shape. Cardwell Mayor Lawanda McMillian fits the bill.

However McMillian was not elected to her position as mayor, she was appointed by the council when former mayor Bon Cross resigned in the fall. At the time of her appointment she held the position of North Ward Alderman.

Because of her appointment by the council McMillian can only serve by law until the next municipal election. The next municipal election is in April. Whover is elected will only be in office for one year to finish out the rest of former mayor Bon Cross's term.

When asked about any future plans of running for office after that McMillian said, "I want to finish some things I have already started. I just want one more year in office."

McMillian is often at city hall during the week. She has spent many hours at the little desk in the little room in the front of city hall allotted for city officials. She put together the budget for the 2002 year completely from scratch because there are no records of last year's budget in city hall. "It takes a lot of time to devote to the mayor's office," McMillian said.

In addition to the duties that accompany her job as mayor, McMillian is self employed. On some days she says she enjoys her job and on some days she says she doesn't. During the course of her administration McMillian has learned the opinions of the people of Cardwell; she knows people for their opinions and she respects them for that.

"Being mayor is part of what you want your community to be. You have to put your community in front of politics," McMillian said. "I want to bring back respect and trust to city hall."

In the future she hopes to create a place where kids in town can go. There is a lot of space in town, created when the railroad tracks were removed. McMillian mentioned that all that left over space would be a great place to provide some kind of park for the children of Cardwell. Eventually if the kids don't have anything to do they will leave the community. If the kids leave the community then there will be no one to take it over tomorrow and the community would die.

Another thing McMillian hopes to accomplish as mayor is to get some of the citizens more involved in the government process. She wants people to know where their tax dollars go and where they were spent. To see where her tax dollars were going was why she ran for the city council in the first place.

McMillian plans to run for mayor in April against write-in candidate David Bishop. Bishop was ineligible to run for office because he had not paid his city taxes on time. He has however paid them and is now eligible to run though he missed the filing deadline. Bishop is actively running against McMillian as a write-in candidate.