1-6-16
By: Rob Moore
Helen City Clerk Marilyn Chastain administers the oath of office to 2016 Mayor Fred Garmon during Tuesday’s meeting.
(HELEN) – Commissioner Fred Garmon will serve as mayor of Helen for 2016.
“I’m humbled and honored and excited about being the mayor here,” Garmon said. “We have some good things going here and we’re just going to more or less continue what we’ve got going here.”
Commissioner Helen Wilkins was elected to serve as mayor pro tem for 2016.
Garmon and Wilkins were sworn in to those respective positions, while Jeff Ash took his 12th oath of office and Cinnamon Spurlock too her first oath of office as a city commissioner.
Spurlock said she is excited about taking office.
“We have a lot of things on our plate for 2016,” Spurlock said. “I’m really excited about expanding on our lights for Christmas and taking advantage of being in the top 10 of Christmas markets in the United States. I’m looking forward to working with the crew for the city.”
Ash reflected on taking the oath of office a dozen times.
“My first one was in January 1974,” Ash said. “It’s been a long tenure, but an enjoyable one.”
Ash also looked forward to the remainder of the year.
“2016 I see that we’re looked at more favorably now, economically,” Ash said. “The city right now can generate any amount of information on the growth patterns that we’ve experienced, even in some bad economic times. That’s proof in the pudding when you look at sales tax, hotel/motel tax, and go downtown and look at the number of people walking the streets.”
Ash said retailers in the city are gaining access to better credit because of the lines they sell, which is important to maintaining a strong retail base in the city.
“We spend a tremendous amount of money making the town aesthetically good-looking for people to come up,” Ash said.
