Pazour seeking return to Marion City Council

Twenty years has not been long enough for Mary Lou Pazour.

Pazour, who was elected to the Marion City Council five times before stepping aside in 2009, is running again.

A lifelong resident of Marion, Pazour, 76, believes her institutional memory is needed on the council.

There are so many new people in Marion, including council members, Pazour believes “they don't understand the legacy of the town, the background.”

“It just seems like I need to be there,” she said Tuesday. “The council needs someone who understands why certain things need to happen.”

At the top of her list are maintaining the city's infrastructure including “streets that are drivable" and the addition of clean industrial growth.

With four relatively new members on the council, Pazour believes there is a failure to listen to residents and to question the city's spending.

“People not getting responses from city hall,” she said. “They tell me there's no reason to try” to get answers.

Pazour, a Marion High School and Coe College graduate, served in the Navy, taught for 15 years and retired from the Linn County Sheriff's Department as a sergeant.

Pazour believes her 20 years on the city council demonstrates she is not only progressive, “but aggressive in obtaining those conditions that can improve the quality of life in this, my hometown Marion.”

She did not seek re-election four years ago in order to have more time to care for her mother.

Craig Adamson, who had four years of experience as the Ward 4 councilman before succeeding Pazour in the at-large position, has not yet filed for re-election.

The city election will be Nov. 5.