Newly elected Enterprise Mayor Mike Gunn was officially sworn in at Enterprise Town Hall on Friday, December 9.
He is already experienced in the position and was able to help the Town of Enterprise when he held the position previously.
“This is not new for me because I served almost two terms before,” explained Mike. “We tried to do a lot of things when I was mayor before. We tried to spruce up the town. We built a municipal garage. We built a park. We worked on the industrial park and just tried to make it a better town for everybody.”
Now that he is in the position again, he has goals and plans for the town.
“My goal is to make everybody’s life better and treat everybody the same,” expressed Mike. “What I want us to do here is to look to the future. I want us to get a year plan, a five year plan, and I want us to work towards some goals and hopefully make everybody happy. I would like to see us get some development back in the industrial park. We’ve got a company that bought some property down there, and so far they haven’t done anything with it. I hope to have some contact with them to see if to see if we can’t encourage them to make some kind of advancement job wise or development wise of some kind. We would like to see that, and of course I’d like to work with a lot of the local businesses we already have. I believe in buying local. There are just a lot of things out there that I found out with grants from the things we did on my previous term as mayor. There are all kinds of grants, and a place this small has to have grants or they’re not going to be able to afford it.”
He is highly supportive of the community and has always been involved in it.
“I look forward to working with the County Board of Supervisors,” continued Mike. “I’m a big supporter of law enforcement, and I’m a big supporter of the school. I served on the board there for about 32 years. That school has always been a focus of this community.”
He plans to act as a leader in his position and is confident in the staff and workers for the town.
“I try to get involved in every facet of the town. I want to know what’s going on, why it’s going on, and all those kind of things,” informed Mike. “We’ve got an excellent clerk. Ruth Combest knows her job. She stays on top of everything. We’ve got good personnel in both the police department and water department. I think we have a good board. Mr. Ben Moore has been Mayor Pro Tem, and I feel like we will keep that in order.”
Overall, he intends to listen to the concerns and needs of the people and be unbiased and fair with any decisions that need to be made. He plans to be there for everyone, but he will also be working other jobs at the same time.
“I want to treat people like I want to be treated, and I have always listened to both sides of the story before I try to make an assumption or judgement call. I think you need to gather all the information and facts you can before you jump off into something. I don’t like controversy, but I pride myself in staying under control and make a decision based on facts and not just flying off the handle,” declared Mike. “I try to be available. I still do a lot of plumbing work when people have busted pipes, stopped up sewer lines, no hot water and things like that. I try to stay free enough that I can finish up something and then go see about somebody’s problem. That’s the way I want to stay: I want to stay where I can be available.”
He is excited to serve the Town of Enterprise and will do a great job with the experience he brings with him.
