Roger Gallaway: City Council

Why did you choose to run for office? As a resident for over 26 years, I've always been impressed with the positive, "can-do" attitude of this community. I have always found myself promoting all of the great things Sidney has to offer to anyone I met. I've also always believed you don't complain about something without offering a solution, or ways to make things better. I enjoy being involved and know that I can help to make Sidney stronger.

What skills do you have that you will bring to the office? I've been an educator for 28 years, with endorsements in Business, Library Media, and 39 graduate hours in technology and facilities. I've served as the Vice Mayor on City Council twice, on the Sidney Planning Commission, Sidney Housing Authority, Chamber of Commerce Econ. Dev. Committee, Cheyenne County Technology Committee, American Legion's Baseball Board, Way Out West Community Theater's Board. All of these required three things: 1) a passion for the community, 2) a vision for the future, and 3) the ability to listen to/work with a wide variety of people. At the end of day, people need to know I will listen to all points of view when making decisions.

What do you hope to accomplish if elected? Stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, we continue to see Bass Pro take away departments and jobs that we were told would stay. For them, I understand it may be "business decisions," but for us it is "home." The best way to stop the bleeding is to diversify the economy for greater stability. This is not a new idea, I campaigned on this platform ten years ago, talking about a "what-if" scenario. Well, the what if is here. Lastly, I expect to continue to build and promote Sidney as a great place to call home. We have outstanding demographics to promote, and once we get companies & individuals to look at that, they see our greatest resource - our people. I recently travelled to Omaha with city staff to meet with the Governor, trying to see what else the state could do for us. But the trip was also to make them aware of where we are being successful, and our current recruitment of a number of other businesses that we are in talks with. It was a very worthwhile trip with both parties coming away with new ideas.

What are some challenges you hope to overcome? Rebuilding the local economy & providing opportunities for people in Sidney are obviously the elephant in the room. Beyond that, we still have a huge need to develop a long range plan that allows not only for street maintenance, but also actual street improvement. Easy to say, extremely difficult to finance. It's going to take a lot of vision and creative planning to accomplish this. But it is not ok to simply say these are problems that were created 30-40 years ago. The time is now.

What are the most important issues to be addressed by your office? Budget, budget, budget. We have spent an incredible amount of time working to make every department as efficient as possible, while still allowing for the type of long range planning needed for sustainability & success - a very fine balancing act. We cut a million dollars out of this year's budget, and we cut a million dollars the year before. Under city manager, Ed Sadler's lead, we have also implemented a number of five year plans (or longer) in saving for capital improvements. This will prevent us from having to borrow vast sums of money down the road as purchases become necessary. To be honest, with these continued efforts and planning, the city will be more financially stable than it has been in the last 25 years, in good times or bad. I will continue to fight for this community in every way possible.