Well, there's always a recall, right?

According to a decision made long before I ever arrived on the scene here in Windham, the plan of government for the village is called the “Federal Plan” the Village was set up under laws governing "Municipal Corporations".

This is important.

Under the federal plan Under the rules of Municipal Corporations, the line of succession upon the removal or death of a village mayor is one person long. The president/leader type of the legislative council, or in our case, the Village Council.

You guessed it. Mr. Moore is mayor again.

And after this took place in 2003 to boot:

WINDHAM VILLAGE MAYOR*

ONE TO BE ELECTED

C. JIM MOORE 194 47.90

JESS E. STARKEY 211 52.10

How did we get to this point? Its quite an interesting turn of events. First, Mr. Moore loses the Mayor's office to Mr. Starkey, and gives it up at the beginning of January. At that time, a member of Village Council decided it was time for him to resign his post, and the remaining Council decided that the most qualified member of the community to replace the resigned position was the man whom the voters had recently rejected for a government post.

So time went by, the Village voted down a few tax increases, the Council required landlords to pay the water bills after requiring them to put the bills in their tenants names a few years before, days turned to weeks turned to months.

Then the Mayor began to decline, and passed on to his reward.

Now we are in the situation of having a man whom the voters rejected in the same office from which he was expressly removed. Amazing. I have a feeling that the remainder of the new Mayor's term will not be the same as it was before. People just don't take that kind of thing lightly.

Consider the Record-Courier article from November 14. Mr. Moore speaks of the things which are upcoming for the Village. Let's consider those.

Sewer Line Construction

Here's something that's been needing done for years. The Water Department will save tens of thousands of dollars in water that leeches into the ground because of all these old tile lines.

Tax increase

Two things. One, you can dress up the tax increase however you'd like, its still a tax increase and people aren't going to be voting for it. A week ago the voters soundly voted against this increase, and just dropping another 1/2 percent to those who work outside the Village isn't going to influence the masses.

The second, and I really don't think I'm going too far out on a limb here, is considering the sentiment of some concerning Mr. Moore, any increase of revenue to the General Fund has the deck seriously stacked against it. There are those (not a majority I believe) who won't in any way, shape, or form, put their money into the hands of a man whom they feel they cannot trust.

Who knows what the next two years will bring? We have a new Village Council, a new/old Mayor, a new Village Council President. We don't know what is going to happen. I believe that we are at a major crossroads in the history of the Village, and the decisions that will be made in the next two years will impact our Village for many years to come.