Gary L. Plunk: Ward 4 City Councilman Candidate

Gary Plunk provided the following information.

Biography: Resident of Ward 4 for 34 years Married to wife Linnie for 39 years; Active member of First Baptist Church of Arnold 21 years; in the Missouri National Guard; Retired Automobile Sales Manager; Member Parks and Recreation Board; Member of Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief; and past Noah volunteer for the rebuilding of New Orleans.

What is your plan to deal with expected budget constraints in the City of Arnold?

Depending on your point of view, our country is either in or on the brink of coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. We need to work hard to be fiscally responsible and use creative ways to balance the budget of our City without placing the burden on the back of families in Arnold.  It may come down to the fact that all will have to share in the pain of having a balanced budget in order to keep Arnold sitting on solid ground.  Some programs may be cut,some purchases may be put off.  Budgeting is never popular or welcomed.  We have to maintain our infrastructures, parks and recreation, and other services.  We have to be smart on how we do it.  All cuts will be unpopular.

What areas of Arnold need to be improved to attract businesses and industry and why?

There are many areas that need to be improved in our City.  Some just need cleaned up and much needed curbside appeal.  Then others need to be completely revamped to attract tenets and customers.  In today’s world, anyone can see that curb appeal attracts businesses as well as customers and clients.  I probably will not be popular with this statement but Arnold needs to clean up its act.  Areas along Jeffco need to be landscaped, fresh coats of paint, some tuck pointing, old houses torn down and replaced with new offices or commercial buildings.  I understand there is a program that is moving toward assisting business owners along Jeffco to do just that, but it seems to be moving slow.  Then there is the old K-Mart area.  The area needs a strong business anchor to help draw customers.  The City needs to lean heavy on the owners of that development to reach out and find a tenant.  Arnold needs to show a commitment to working with businesses, not against them.  A business-friendly ‘sign ordinance’ is a must for Arnold area businesses to succeed.

What are your priorities in office and why?

Someone asked me why I decided to run for the Ward 4 seat.  Good question.  It boils down to simply I care about the town I live in and I want to see it grow and prosper; not languish in the shadows of St Louis and the surrounding areas.  Leaders of our community need to act like leaders in attitude and actions toward our citizens and each other.  One of my goals is to push for building relationships with local businesses to help them succeed and attract new businesses.  As leaders, we must get the word out to the community to ‘Shop Arnold’. This alone will attract new businesses, retain present businesses and the income from the sales tax will go a long way to support the services our citizens need and expect.

As City leaders, we must learn from the past, deal with the present, and plan for the future.

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