Fox grateful for community support going into two-year mayor term

Greenfield Mayor Brian Fox presided over another council meeting Monday night thankful that so many voters gave him the confidence to lead the city for the next two years.

Fox, 63, ran unopposed for the seat, receiving 476 votes, or 98.55% of the vote, to finish out former mayor Jimmie Schultz’s term, which is for two years.

“I had already thought a lot about what it would take to finish out our previous mayor’s term, and we obviously have a lot going on to where we can keep moving forward from here that the council has brought to the table over the last several years,” Fox said in a follow-up interview last Friday after the election. “It’s just stuff that we need to keep moving forward on.”

The mayor was impressed with voter turnout — out of 5,100 registered voters in the county, 1,078 ballots were cast in the election.

“Now I can move forward with the confidence [voters] have shown me and help them out,” said Fox, who has been on the council since 2014.

A dozen years ago, former Public Works Director Lee Wright encouraged Fox to run for city council. He procrastinated enough that he had to conduct a write-in campaign, and he won the seat. Over those years since, a lot has changed in Greenfield, Fox said.

“There’s a lot more to running city government than trying to take care of streets, enforcing ordinances and other things. You have to look forward to projects that are coming up and look at how you’re going to fund them. That’s one of the biggest challenges: funding the ongoing work that it takes to keep a town up to snuff,” Fox said. “It really surprised me how much was involved. It takes about a term to get your feet under you. I’ve enjoyed it over the years and thought this would be a great opportunity to fill in that position for at least the next two years.”

Despite bumps in the road in various ways that are in recent memory, Fox feels the city is in a prime position to move forward on positive footing with large projects and day-to-day operations.

A few priorities Fox mentioned revolve around recruiting and retaining staff to the best of the city’s ability, as well as staying focused on capital projects like the fire station rebuild and ongoing sewer work.

“There are a lot of big things, but then you have to take care of the little things,” he said.