Thursday, March 31, 2011

THURSDAY MARCH 31, 2011 7:34 PM I am going to take a few days off. I have not had a break in several months. It has been quiet at city hall for the past several days. We now have four candidates who have announced that they plan to seek the position of mayor for the City of Wynne. It has been cold here for the past several days. I spent this past weekend in side. It was too cold to do anything outside. The weather is predicted to be warmer over the next several days. I hope that it is warmer. I plan to complete several outside projects while I am off. I received a call a few minutes ago informing me that Mr. Ken Bock has passed away. It has been my pleasure to appear with him on Yawn Patrol on KWYN once a month since October of 1998. That was the date that I became mayor. I appeared with him and over the years several other host. Mr. Ken has been there I began. The co host has changed several times. I will miss Mr. Ken and I will miss not going to the radio station after every city council meeting.

Monday, March 21, 2011

MONDAY MARCH 21, 2011
5:22PM

It has been quiet at the city hall over the last few days. I have received a number of best wishes on my retirement. I have also received a number of thanks for my service as mayor. It is always good to receive comments like the ones I have received since my announcement.

As of today there are three announced candidates for the position of mayor.

I worked in the yard over the past weekend. It was good to have warm weather and be able to work outside. I enjoy getting outside and working in the yard. It is a good change from dealing with problems as mayor.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

WEDNESDAY MARCH 9, 2011
7:00 PM


MAYOR PAUL NICHOLS TO RETIRE JULY 15, 2011

Last night at the Wynne City Council meeting I announced to the council that I plan to retire from my position as Mayor of the City of Wynne. I made the decision after a lot of thought. After careful evaluation on the situation I chose to retire this July. I chose the July date because that will allow time to conduct an election for my replacement. The election will be held on June 14, 2011. If a runoff is required the election will be held three weeks later on July 5, 2011. That will make it possible to have an elected mayor in place when I leave office.

The question that has come up most is "Is the mayor sick". I am not sick. I am in good health. Another question that has come up several times is"Is the mayor moving to Mississippi" I do not plan to move to Mississippi any time soon. Pat and I do own a home in Mississippi, but at the present time we will continue to live in Wynne. I do think that when I retire that we will spend more time at our home in Iuka.

It has been an honor an pleasure to serve as mayor of Wynne. I have enjoyed the experiences that I have had serving as mayor. I never hated to go to work. But it is time for a change.

After my announcement the city council passed an ordinance calling for a special election to select my replacement.

They also took the following actions:

Approved the plat for a subdivision in the south part of the city. The developer plans to build 36 homes on the property. He said that they would be completed by December 31 of this year.

Approved the rezoning of a piece of property on Highway 1 South from residential to Commercial

Approved a group of citizens as the Wynne Tree Board

Approved the contract to build a walking trail between the hospital and John Hayden Smith Park. The hospital has been working with the city on this project. In fact the trail will be on property owned by the hospital.

Passed an ordinance calling for a special election on May 10, 2011 for a 1% sales tax for 5 years.
If passed this tax will provide funding for economic development, parks and recreation and a small amount for the street department.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

SATURDAY MARCH 5, 2011
6:30 AM

I have spent the last two days interviewing six candidates for the Executive Director of the East Arkansas Planning and Development district. The committee that conducted the interviews is the Executive Committee of the district. The committee is composed of twelve county judges and me. All of the judges were not able to attend, but we did have a good cross section of the district represented.

We blocked out two hours and fifteen minutes for each interview. Most of the interviews took about two hours. We had some very good candidates and the committee did a good job conducting the interviews. We ask each candidate the same fifteen questions. We also allowed the candidates to ask any question. As a result of our questions and the candidates question other questions were generated and answered by the candidates.

When all the interviews were complete the committee ranked the candidates and reached a consensus on the person we will recommend to the full board for employment. I was impressed with the candidates and I am pleased with the person we will recommend to the full board for employment.

The interviews for the position were held in the community room at the Wynne Fire Depatment. Wynne is a central location for the district.

Yesterday a friend of mine gave me two tickets each for two baseball and one basketball games to be held today at Mississippi State. He also gave me a parking pass. I would like to go to the games, but because of my schedule this past week and what is planned for next week I have decided to take it easy this week end and stay at home.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

WEDNESDAY MARCH 2, 2011
7:25 PM

I spent most of the day driving and attending a meeting at the municipal league in North Little Rock. I attended the meeting of the Executive Committee. (I am a member) We had a very good meeting. We spent most of the time discussing positions we have on the work that is going on at the capital. There are a number of bills that we support and a number that we are working to get defeated. We do n0t always agree with every position, but we have good discussion and reach a position that we all can support.

I will be very busy the next two days. I am on the Executive Committee for the planning district. On of duties of that committee is to choose a candidate for the position of director. We have gone through a long process with the help of UALR. We received twenty four applications for the position. Those have been ranked from 1 to 24 based on the information that UALR collected from a number of sources. Tomorrow and Friday we (the committee) will be interviewing the top six. We will do three interviews a day. We have allowed two hours and fifteen minutes for each candidate. If we can reach a consensus on one of the six we will recommend that individual to the full board. If we are not satisfied with one of the six we will interview some of the other 18 candidates. I think that we will probably choose on of the to six candidate. It will be two long days, but I think that the process will allow us to choose the best person for the job.

The city council will meet next Tuesday night. I will make a report on this blog after the meeting.