This past Monday, Emerson Valley’s newly-elected mayor, Anthony Faulk, was sworn into office during a small inauguration ceremony that took place at City Hall. A lifelong member of the Republican Party, Mr. Faulk defeated the incumbent mayor, James Foley, in a landslide election victory last November.

His campaign really picked up steam during the final few months leading up to the election, particularly when it came to the candidates’ single town hall debate. Mr. Faulk spoke eloquently and remained on point, while Mr. Foley seemed to be out of his element, stumbling around and only offering vague comments that were barely related to the topic at hand.

Our new mayor has hit the ground running, addressing several issues plaguing the town that have gone unaddressed for years. These include a proposal for new street lights, since residents have lodged many complaints about street light bulbs flickering, burning out, or just being too weak to make much of a difference at night. Mayor Foley had steadfastly refused to approve the proposal, but the City Council kept it from being vetoed outright.

Instead, Mr. Foley used a tactic he became famous for: leaving proposals approved by the City Council but undesirable to him in the queue. These proposals remained “pending” for years, and as long as there were other matters Mr. Foley could point to as requiring his attention, nobody could force him to get to specific issues pending on the docket.

Mr. Foley’s biggest problem with the new street light proposal was that it called for a transition from the old lightbulb street lights to modern LED street lights. The cost to install them isn’t insignificant, but within a decade, the city will be saving a substantial amount of money every year going forward. It appeared like the former mayor was unwilling to take on the task of spending that money to install the LED street lights during his tenure so as not to harm his chances at reelection, but obviously that didn’t end up making much of a difference.

Concerning his decision to approve the proposal, Mayor Faulk was quoted as saying, “It’s the right decision for the overall health of the town. The money we spend now will result in continuing savings down the line, and even more importantly, the people of Emerson Valley will feel safer when driving or going outside at night with well-lit streets.”

A phone interview with Mayor Faulk was conducted on Friday for the Gazette:

The Emerson Valley Gazette: “Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Mayor Faulk.”

Mayor Anthony Faulk: “Of course. I’m always happy to talk to my constituents. Especially the ones who work for the press.” (Laughs)

Gazette: “Well, I can’t speak for the rest of the staff, but I voted for you.”

Faulk: (Laughs again) “Wow, thank you! I really hope you don’t get in trouble with your boss for saying that.”

Gazette: “Don’t worry, my job is safe. But let’s talk about yours. How did your first official week as mayor go?”

Faulk: “It was great. A bit chaotic, but in a good way. Obviously, one of my campaign promises was to get a lot of legislation and civic matters that had stalled under my predecessor’s tenure, so I really wanted to dig right into those and get things moving.”

Gazette: “Sounds like you’ve been pretty busy already. What about your plans for the future? Anything major we should be looking out for on the horizon?”

Faulk: Absolutely. I can’t talk about everything I want to do just yet, but a few problems my team wants to solve are things like the traffic issues downtown and the absurd amount of money wasted on our current garbage collection contractor. From reading the pertinent documentation, it’s pretty clear my predecessor gave them a sweetheart deal without bothering to accept bids from any other companies.

“There’s a lot I need to sift through when it comes to business conducted prior to my inauguration. I could probably spend this entire term just correcting past mistakes, but since I want to focus on the future, too, some of it will have to wait. Luckily, my position as CEO of Jorus Tech means I can make sure at least one big corporation actually gives back to the community. You can expect the economy to be booming by the next election.”

Gazette: “Speaking of the next election, is it too early to ask if you’ll be running again in 2023?”

Faulk: (Laughing) “Yeah, it’s a bit too early still. My primary goal is to get Emerson Valley back on the right track. When the next election gets closer, your paper will be the first to know if I’ll run again or not.”

Gazette: “Alright. Thank you for your time, Mr. Mayor, and good luck.”

Faulk: “Thank you, and thank you to all your readers out there. Whether you voted for me or not, I intend to work as hard as I can on your behalf to make your life a little better.”

-William Cooper, Human Interest, Emerson Valley Gazette