Candidate Ron Swearingen

I am running for the at large City Council seat in Marion because I am proud to call Marion my hometown and want to give something back to the community where I was born and raised.

I support a common sense and fiscally responsible approach that has been severely lacking on the council of late. I will be asking the questions as to why we have no accountability for sizable gas allowances that are paid out. I'll be asking why our department heads are given comp time to attend council meetings because it is supposedly not part of their job. I also will be asking why the basic platform on which Mayor Bouska was overwhelmingly voted in on has been largely ignored by the council. I also will be asking why that council is compounding past mistakes by repeating them.

The council has approved new brick streets along Sixth Avenue despite the fact that our existing brick streets are in such horrible condition. Those new bricks are crumbling after one year and there is talk of building more. Common sense tells us that brick is not a valid 21st century street material in a growing city.

The temporary closing of Blairs Ferry Road has become a harbinger of traffic problems to come. Marion is expected to have a population of 50,000 by the middle of the next decade. I offer a common sense plan to ease those traffic burdens and allow our rapidly declining residential streets to be repaired.

I am graduate of Marion High and the University of Iowa. I am a second generation veteran who served in the Army at NATO Headquarters and in the 101st Airborne Division. I am a member of Marion Christian Church and the American Legion. For the last 16 years, I have worked in the customer service field and am currently employed by Security Coverage. I have been married 20 years and have three children.

Comments: ronandirene@msn.com