by: DeAngela McDougald
“You can not do it alone, it takes a whole team.”
That’s the sentiment of Junction City Mayor Phyllis Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald is hoping to inspire potential leaders in the community with her community outreach and positive image campaigns. Most recently, she hosted a Walk and Talk with the Mayor event on the morning of July 14th.
“You just need someone in a community, or neighborhood to say ‘hey, I want to be a part of [this] and let’s make this happen,” said Fitzgerald. “It’d be nice if the different neighborhoods were to form a little neighborhood group of people and get together and pick a day each month or once a quarter to focus on their neighborhood, and walk around and clean it up.”
Fitzgerald hosts weekly cleanup efforts in various locations throughout Junction City, most often hitting the main thoroughfares. “I know I can’t be everywhere, but I will do my best to go out and support any neighborhood event.”
Inspiring others is what Fitzgerald does best, as a Spring Valley Neighborhood cleanup group has formed and will host their first cleanup effort this Saturday.
But, the Walk and Talks aren’t only about picking up trash.
“Whether you’re a leader, a politician, a business owner, a homeowner, a schoolkid – everybody is invited; and I’ve asked the City Manager (Allen Dinkel) to attend these events with me, because if people have questions about something in the City that I wouldn’t necessarily have the answer to, then he is there to provide whatever the answer is,” said Fitzgerald noting that she also provides follow-up emails to community members that have concerns or questions.
Several other topics were brought up by those in attendance at the Walk and Talk including implementing dog waste baggies/baskets at City parks, upgrades to the Municipal swimming pool to include lap swimming for adults, resurfacing of City-owned tennis courts, and various other quality of life suggestions/concerns.
Fitzgerald’s goal is to host one Walk and Talk event each month – and for August she plans to move the event to a Saturday morning instead of Friday, in hopes of gaining more participation.