A new member joined the Carthage City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 8, filling a vacancy that has remained open since last Summer.
Carthage Mayor Dan Rife appointed Raymond West, 325 Boggess St., to the Ward 2 seat that has been vacant since Tim Shields resigned to take a job as a community resource officer with the Carthage School District in August 2018.
The Council approved the appointment unanimously and West was sworn in and took his seat at the start of the regular meeting.
West said he read in the newspaper in November that there was an opening on the Council that had been vacant for quite some time, and he decided he wanted to serve.
“I was retired, I’ve got plenty of free time, so I went ahead and called, and the Mayor and I talked a couple of different times,” West said. “I decided I’d file for the April election for the remaining term and he’d appoint me to complete the existing term.”
West is the only person who had filed to run for the unexpired one-year term in the April 2, 2019 municipal election as of Tuesday, June 8.
The filing period ends at the end of the business day, Tuesday, Jan. 15.
West said he and his wife, Gloria West, had lived in Carthage from 1971 to 1985 before his job transferred him out of town.
The couple decided to make Carthage their home again upon his retirement in September 2017.
“This is home, my wife’s family is here, she was born and raised here,” Ray West said. “I was born and raised in Pittsburg, so my family is not that far away, and we just felt like it was time to come back to this area.”
West said this is his first experience serving in a political office. He worked as an administrator of a senior health care facility for the last 12 years of his career, and he feels he can be useful in almost any role the city needs.
“I’m looking forward to just serving, just seeing what I can do to help,” West said. “If there are things that come up that I can do to further Carthage, that’s what I want to do. I’ve been in business management my whole career, not just those 12 years, I did other business management jobs. I think I can probably be useful on any committee they’ve got. I just want to be useful, I want to help. I have no political ambitions, I’m not trying to become Mayor or move up.”
Mayor Rife will appoint West to serve on two of the five council standing committees and he’ll be appointed to be a liaison to at least two of two dozen committees and groups that are affiliated with the city.
West’s name will be on the ballot in the April 2, 2019 election, then if he wants to serve a full two-year term on the council, he’ll have to run again in the April 2020 election.
