CALLAWAY — Callaway Ward I candidates want to make the city’s financial situation the apple of its residents’ eyes.
A recent audit shows the city is fiscally responsible; however, a $33 million debt still looms. Incumbent Dennis DeLapp and contender Melba Covey said they are committed lead the city in financial stability if they are elected.
“It’s a matter of cutting back … trimming the budget, which we’ve been doing all along,” DeLapp said in an interview Friday, noting services will not be cut and working on the city’s financial situation is an ongoing process. “We have to look to other sources of income.”
In the past eight years as commissioner, DeLapp has seen the city grow and plummet. After hiring City Manager Marcus Collins, the city has begun to fiscally improve once again, he said.
However, the expense to a better Callaway has had a cost, most notably, a hiring freeze in place for about a year and water fee increases — a burden commissioners say is passed down from Bay County, from which the city purchases water wholesale.
As she goes door to door, Covey said, every resident is complaining about the higher water rates. Covey is the chairwoman of the Citizens Advisory Committee, a group of citizens instrumental in the dismissal of the last city manager.
“The water rates here are getting ridiculous till where people don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said. If elected, she’d work to bring down water and sewer rates and find more ways for the city to streamline its debt.
“They’re just not moving as fast as I think they should move,” she said of current commissioners.
DeLapp’s holds his lengthy tenure on the board as proof that he’s committed to making a better future for businesses and residents in Callaway.
“I’ve been involved with the city for quite a while and I want to see it evolve in the direction its heading,” he said.
Covey, who voices her view and the view of others as a citizenry representative, attends nearly every commission meeting and has developed a view on what she wants the city to be like.
“I envision us to be a small town that’s safe, physically attractive and affordable to live in,” she said.