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What's on the plate for Martin?

An interview with the city's first full-time mayor


Randy Brundige was elected mayor last fall, and The Pacer was curious to see what he has been working on, and how he likes the job.

During the mayoral debates last fall Brundige stated one of his reasons for running was to help “a stagnated city that is not developing any industry and [to get] new business coming here.” Brundige stated that since the liquor reform has passed and with incentive packages, there are several ongoing businesses negotiations that may bring more companies to Martin, but because of the delicacy of these negotiations he refused to release the names of these companies.

When asked when the community could start to see these companies appear we were told anywhere from 3 months to a year.

Furthermore, in the mayoral debate Brundige had also stated, “I would like to implement a committee set up of SGA representatives and city officials to meet monthly to air our concerns and needs so we could build a better relationship between the university and the city of Martin.”

When The Pacer asked him about this we were informed that the first meeting has already been scheduled for February 27th, and he invited UTM’s students to attend. Brundige also commented on how he was hoping to see more unity between the Martin community and UTM’s students by making things such as Homecoming bigger events for the community as well as the university.

Brundige told us that bringing a general sessions court to Martin was one of his main goals, and that he very strongly believes the community needs this because it is time consuming, for both citizens and businesses to deal with Martin’s legal issues in Dresden’s court house. Perhaps if this passes paying a ticket may become less than an all day affair for a student.

The Pacer was also told that being the first full-time mayor of Martin was a learning experience for himself as well as for those he works with. “We now have weekly meetings in which we discuss our goals,” and how “Everyone is just feeling their way around at first.”

When asked how Martin was being affected by the Iraq conflict Brundige told us that because of the recession City Hall has a hiring freeze right now, and that the budget is being scrutinized in every department.

Furthermore, the mayor commented on how even “Martin has water plant procedures and security measures and that along with receiving FBI bulletins I attend Homeland security meetings;” however, he doesn’t think the Martin community is going to need the duct tape to keep out the WMD quite yet.

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Heather Nicholson