Page 4 • August 13, 2020 • Edmond Life & Leisure
From the Publisher
Davis to run for mayor While I was tucked away in an isolated cabin in the Rockies last week, we received a letter from current Edmond City Council member Nick Massey. Massey has service as City of Edmond Ward 4 City Ray Hibbard Councilman since March 2012 and as Mayor Pro Tem since May 2019. We have printed his letter to citizens on page 10 of today’s newspaper. He has decided not to seek re-election to the council once this term has expired in April of 2021. Some had speculated that he would run for Edmond Mayor. He put an end to that speculation as well as you can read in his letter. Massey says he wants to spend more time with his own business, family and hobby that has turned into another career, singing, and playing guitar at local venues. Massey says of his decision, “I decided to make this announcement now so that anyone who might be considering running for either of those council positions will have time to decide what they might like to do and can prepare for their campaign. The filling period for next year’s election is the first week of December 2020”. I was saddened by the news but totally understand why he wants to stop the madness and go back to a private life. It is difficult to serve on any city council or even worse, school board. Folks can be rude and wrongly suspicious of people in public service. Massey has served with distinction. Current Edmond Mayor, Dan O’Neil, has already told me he has no plans to run for re-election. We did receive some good news upon our return to reality this week. Edmond City Councilman Darrell A. Davis has announced his candidacy for Edmond mayor for 2021. Davis is the council representative for Ward 3, and we are excited that he has decided to run for this important office. “I thought it important to tell the citizens of Edmond my plans even though I have been involved with Edmond growth for several years, people still may not know who I am”, Davis said. “I want to give everyone the opportunity to understand what I have been a part of and where I would like to see Edmond continue to go,” he added. Darrell has served as the City of Edmond Ward 3 City Councilmember since November 2011. Prior to that date he was a member of the Edmond Park & Recreation Advisory Board
Darrell Davis where he was extremely instrumental with the Development of the MAC Senior Center, the City of Edmond/YMCA/Edmond Public Schools partnership, the Mitch Park Development, the Trails of Edmond, Skate Park, Bickham-Rudkin Park and the Edmond Dog Park. As the Ward 3 City Councilman Davis has been successful in working with the development of the Edmond Tennis Center in partnership with Edmond Public Schools, Splash Pad, Spring Creek Trail, Edmond Public Safety Center, Show Biz Entertainment, the I-35 corridor development and the Edmond Downtown Business District. He has been appointed to various committees including Edmond Historic Preservation Trust, Edmond Public Works Committee, Diversity and Inclusion Board with Edmond Chamber, UCO Black Male Summit, and UCO Master of Public Administration Advisory Board. Davis has also been involved over the past 25 years in Tomorrow’s Edmond-1996, Leadership Edmond Graduate-Class 14, 1999, Edmond Park Advisory Board Chairperson-15 years, Leadership Edmond Distinguished Alumni of the Year 2020. Davis knows Edmond and will make a good candidate and mayor if elected. He has quietly gone about the business of being involved and helping
Edmond organizations. We look forward to the campaign and any other candidates that might enter the race. It will be a good chance to get ideas and plans out to the public. It will be interesting to see who else might enter the race for Edmond Mayor prior to the filing deadline. There will be some open slots on the council, and we are hopeful there will be good folks that are willing to come forward to serve. City politics for 2021 should be an interesting time. The heart of small business As I mentioned at the top of this column, we took a week trip to the mountains. While we isolated in a cabin near Monarch Ski Resort, we did have the opportunity to drive through several small towns on the way. It is about a 10-hour drive and the route we took let us see how creative small business are having to be these days. The trout in the gold medal stream in front of the cabin did the best of job of social distancing I have seen yet. We already knew the extra ordinary efforts that small businesses in Edmond are going through in order to survive. Just here in downtown Edmond you have seen the number of outside eating available at the Mule and other restaurants increase. Othello’s here in downtown has partnered with our friends at Frenzy Brewing
Company to let folks pick up a pizza and take it down to Frenzy to enjoy hand crafter pizza and beer. The sign in front of Around the Corner reads “Grand Opening, again”. Small businesses are creative folks and will not give in no matter what the challenge. Our small businesses across America are feeling a giant financial crunch from the bite of COVID-19. The restrictions of having to stay home, social distancing and more have taken a giant hit on their businesses. Small businesses already fight a small margin so when customers are being encouraged to avoid unnecessary shopping trips it just kills small businesses. A recent Goldman Sachs survey of more than 1,500 small business owners found that more than 50% of them said they did not think they could continue operating their businesses for more than three months amid the current conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. To see how hard these businesses owners are working across the country to save what they created is incredible. It makes me so proud to work with our local merchants as a small, locally owned business as well. We ran across a small coffee shop in Westcliffe, Colorado on our trip. It is called Tumbleweed Coffee House and sits right on the corner as you pass through town. We passed by it with no plans to stop but just had to turn around. They had the place really fixed up and had created such a wonderful place outside where folks could sit. The orders were only taken through a walk-up window. We put on our masks and ordered. The gal behind the counter was the owner and was working her tail off folks. I pray she will make it through all of this but is going to have a difficult run of it having only been open only two years. I know the talking heads on television send out the message to buy local but your locally owned and operated newspaper is asking for your help as well. Please, shop for what you can at your small businesses. Buy meals from businesses. Do you Christmas shopping now. Purchase gift cards from small businesses that you can give as gifts all next year. I noticed 100 giant corporations sent a letter to congress and the president asking for them to do more to support small businesses. They know like we do that small businesses support over half of the work force in our economy and we need them to make it through our current challenge.
(Ray Hibbard may be reached by email at ray@edmondpaper.com)
Check out what’s inside! ---- Rodeo this weekend ....................................................................Page 6. ---- Top Francis Tuttle instructor honored ..........................................Page 7. ---- Business news ............................................................................Page 9. ---- Councilman Massey announces political plans ..........................Page 10. ---- Elks Lodge installs new officers ..................................................Page 11. ---- George Gust reviews new Seth Rogan film ................................Page 14. ---- Crossword puzzle ......................................................................Page 14. ---- Back to School section ........................................................Pages 15-18. ---- GOP Women schedule meeting ................................................Page 19. This and so much more in this week’s edition
See if you can find ‘Four Seasons’ “Four Seasons” in real life is located in front of the Center for Transformative Learning on the University of Central Oklahoma campus, but this week is hidden somewhere in our paper. Please e-mail contest@edmondpaper.com with the correct location to be entered in the weekly drawing. Commissioned as a partnership between UCO, the City of Edmond and the Edmond Visual Arts Commission, “Four Seasons” was created by sculptor Kevin Box of New Mexico and was dedicated on the campus on March 24, 2011. Kevin is a member of the National Sculptor’s Guild. His Box Studio LLC is a strong supporter of the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle concept, using recycled metal as part of the casting process for his sculptures. All of his work is 100 percent recyclable. For more information on Edmond public art, please visit http://visitedmondok.com/public-art.php.
Publisher Ray Hibbard Jr. ray@edmondpaper.com Partner Christopher T. Hoke Editor Steve Gust news@edmondpaper.com Production Deanne York Advertising Director Alexx Harms alexx@edmondpaper.com Contributing Writers Mallery Nagle, Kacee Van Horn, Rose Drebes, and George Gust. Photographer Melinda Infante
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