My Dreams For Shawnee

Shawnee is very dear to me. I had my first office job in Shawnee. My daughter was raised here and I have many friends that I cherish. I ran for office to make Shawnee a better place for everyone in town.

I feel that I have done a little of that but that there is a lot more that needs to be done. So far, I've been able to get some street lights added. I think street lights are one of the best ways to prevent mischief and crime. I'm now working on a project to get more street lights for areas in Shawnee that have high crime.

My constituents came to me and asked for help when they closed the drive up utility payment window. Several of the people who were concerned had physical disabilities that made getting in and out of their car a real problem. I got the issue on the agenda and encouraged the city manager to take care of something that it looked like was going to be forgotten.

Several people came to me and wanted to know why we didn't have the nice snowflakes lights on main roads south of Main Street during the Christmas Season. I was able to work with the city on this issue and got the snowflakes installed on the Farrell Harrison Loop area.

When our former city manager proposed closing the swimming pool, I was one of the first and loudest voices to speak against that plan. I looked at some of the smaller towns around us and found that they had swimming pools so it seemed to me Shawnee should be able to have one too. The Shawnee Swimming pool has been almost a summer home to thousands of Shawnee citizens and even though a water park is nice, it can not replace a pool and the old fashioned healthy fun a pool gives our children.

I feel like I have been and can continue to be a voice for Shawnee's older part of town which is often forgotten when the wheeler dealers and special interests get together and make plans for the future.

I believe a healthy city takes care of the needs of all it's citizens. I know our city has many needs. In my mind, a clean, economical water supply is at the top of that list. We also need to update and maintain our roads, sewers, and water lines and that takes money. I believe it's going to be hard to do all the things that need to be done but I want to help make sure that we do everything we can on the water and make fair common sense decisions on the rest of our needs. With your support, I can continue in this job and work for all of Shawnee and make it the very best place to be for everyone.

MARVA O'NEAL
AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR ALL OF SHAWNEE