Aragon mayor, council members right to work on New Year’s Day
Debbie Pittman “ready to get started” and calls for cooperation as 2020 begins
With the coming of the New Year and beginning of a decade, the Aragon City Council will need to gather for some quick business and the changing of the guard.
Mayor-elect Debbie Pittman and council members Judd Fee and Buddy Tanner will all be sworn in during a special called session on January 1 set for 10 a.m. in the council meeting room at city hall.
“I’m ready to get started,” Pittman said ahead of the coming ceremonies on Wednesday morning.
The only purpose for the meeting is to swear in Pittman, Fee and Tanner.
Pittman said her purpose is to hit the ground running and put the city back on track toward prosperity.
“This is a new administration. We’re going to move forward and we’re going to work as a team,” she said. “It is going to be a team effort to help the city.”
One goal she will immediately have to tackle is restoring stability to the city’s finances after years of ups and downs, and depending on timely large checks to make it through months out of the year. Pittman said when the council reconvenes following the ceremony on January 16 for their work session and regular meeting that the city’s cash flow is the top priority.
“The finances are the very first thing that I’m going to tackle. We’re going to get back to the positive side,” Pittman said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got enough money to continue operations into the future and we’re going to be tightening our belts until we get to where we feel comfortable again.”
Wednesday’s ceremony brings back Fee for a new term on the council after he was elected to continue in office after he spent the past two years on the council in a seat previously left vacated in 2017. He is joined by Buddy Tanner, who was
newly voted into office in this year’s municipal election to fill the spot left open by Pittman in her run for Mayor.
Pittman replaces Mayor Garry Baldwin, who served a single term in office and briefly thanked citizens of
Aragon for the opportunity to serve the community after he was elected in November 2016 to fill the vacated seat.
She ran unopposed for the seat to fill a four year term in office. Fee and Tanner faced two other candidates in the running, Mike Long Jr. and Gary Shindelbower on the November ballot and came out as the toptwo candidates in the race.