Sickles elected mayor of Fontanelle

As a born and raised citizen of Fontanelle who is already actively involved in his small community, Tyson Sickles is the new mayor-elect and is excited to take office at the beginning of 2018.

Sickles ran unopposed in last week’s election and takes over for Wayne Miller, who served one two-year term in the position.

“I know what Fontanelle is and I feel like I know what the citizens want,” Sickles said. “There’s a gap, I feel, between the citizens, the council and the mayor. I feel I know the citizens and am respected by the citizens. That’s the main reason I ran.”

Though building even better communication between the citizens and their leaders will take time, it’s a challenge Sickles says he’s up for, and there are a few concrete benchmarks Sickles would like to see met.

“I feel like we need to clean up Fontanelle, and there are areas of Fontanelle that need attention. If we need to clean up Fontanelle, we need to notify lots of people that their properties need cleaned up,” Sickles said. “Some people will say ‘the city is after me’ [and I want to change that].”

Sickles likes the camaraderie Fontanelle has shown lately, even though people come and go from the town.

“If there’s a fundraiser they’ll come to the fundraiser. They’ll basically do anything for anybody,” he said. “That’s just the community we’ve got. We had a farmer recently who got hurt in a car wreck. Knowing community members will go out and help him get his crops out, that’s what Fontanelle is and what’s what I want it to stay as.

“It used to be that you knew everybody in Fontanelle. Now you don’t and times change, but I wanted to be a familiar face running for mayor who knows what people expect out of me and feel they can come to me if they have an issue,” Sickles added.

Sickles also adds he plans to be fair with everyone when they approach the council with concerns.

“I’m gonna be level-headed about it and open on both sides of it,” he said. “I’ll get a general consensus on both sides of it, and that’s why I ran.”

There was no one challenging any of the current council members in this year’s city election. Council members beginning new terms are Brody Warrior and Jade Zimmerline. Other council members are Rod Dukes, Cindy Baldogo and Marlene Davis. They meet on the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Fontanelle Community Center adjacent to the fire station.

“We have one [council member] who owns his own business and the others have a variety of backgrounds,” Sickles said. “We have some guys with some experience and some younger guys who bring good opinions to the table. Another good thing is that we have a good mix of male and female also.”