Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith starting to make good on some of her campaign promises as she has one month under her belt, and she looks to hit the streets in the coming days, literally.
“Walking the Wards” is a new initiative where she and her staff are taking the mayor’s office out to where the people are. They will be boots on the ground in Lima neighborhoods. Smith hopes to make those connections with the community in a casual setting rather than at council or in her office.
“I talked a lot about being responsive, being approachable,” Smith says, “So, we want citizens to know that we care about what’s going on in their neighborhoods as much as they do.”
Smith says they will be walking the city by voting precincts of which there are 23. Not only will they be talking with residents they will be looking at roads, sidewalks, street lighting and any other city service-related issues.
Smith goes on to explain, “Finding out, you know, what are those issues and being able to come back to our office and take a cross-departmental approach and resolving some of the issues that our citizens most care about.”
The first “Walk the Wards” will be Thursday, January 27th at Noon. They will meet at the “Light in the Corner” Café at Woodlawn and Spring Streets. After the walk, there will be a question-and-answer session at the café. Due to social distancing requirements pre-registration is required and space is limited. You can register by using the information on your scene. The walks will be every Monday and Thursday as weather permits.
