Dawn Thomas

LISBON — Councilwoman Dawn Thomas, who serves as council president, announced recently that she’ll be running for mayor of Lisbon during the November election.

“I came to live in Lisbon when I was 3 years old. My father opened a business here, Deyber Tire, and from that time on Lisbon has been my home. My husband Richard is a lifelong resident of Lisbon, this is where we raised our son Alec and we have been proud to call Lisbon home. Our roots are firmly planted and I care what happens to our town, so I decided to run for mayor,” she said in a press release.

“I am honored that I have been elected by our voters to serve two terms as a councilwoman. I am even more honored that my fellow council members see me as a leader and voted me in as Council President for the last five years,” she noted.

In asking for the support of residents, she explained the reasons she feels she’s ready for the position.

“I have listened, asked questions and done research over the past eight years on the business of the Village of Lisbon. I have learned a lot, and I would like to bring a fresh approach to the governing of our beloved village. We need to be able to work with our Chamber of Commerce as well as surrounding municipalities, businesses and local organizations.

“Our relationships have been strained over the past few years and we need to take the first steps to repair them. We need them and they need us if we are going to make this area strong and vibrant. I would like to work directly with the Chamber on a joint project to strengthen the resources we have available for new and existing businesses. It is not enough to just say ‘I brought in a new business.’ If we can’t provide resources to also help them thrive then we have failed them. We need to look at forming a group of mentors to help those new businesses start and flourish. Our current business owners have firsthand knowledge in making a business succeed in Lisbon. We need to create a business friendly environment so existing businesses want to work with us. Let’s spend more time listening to their needs instead of pushing our needs and opinions on them,” she wrote.

“We also need to revamp the way we handle our tax monies and grants. Grants are wonderful, if they fit our needs and help provide the needed monies to fund our goals. We can’t change our goals to meet what monies might be available. As part of the finance committee, I can tell you we have made some changes, but more needs to happen. We need to be financially smart, research and plan our projects as efficiently as possible,” Thomas wrote.

She also addressed the condition of streets and said “the roads in town are horrible and until I became a councilwoman, I did not realize how much money went into fixing a road — it is costly! We need to put our roads on a maintenance plan. Rotating through our approximately 30 miles of streets and alleys would provide the opportunity for us to keep up with repairs instead of running around trying to fix all major streets once problems have developed. We need to be proactive and with some planning, good communication and real leadership we could make it happen.”

“I also have ideas on how to help Lisbon find its own unique identity and then market our village to bring in people. We can learn from what other communities do that works, but we have to capitalize on what Lisbon has that is unique. We are not Columbiana, Leetonia or Salem. They have their identities and we need to build ours. We have so many things to boast about here — we just don’t do so in an efficient way,” she wrote.

In closing, Thomas said, “I go to bed at night and the memories of what Lisbon was, the filled storefronts and close-knit community fill my head. It is those memories that spark the dreams I have of what Lisbon could be, with leadership, desire and appropriate use of our monetary and human resources. I will promise you that as your next mayor, I will give this village and its citizens 110%.”

She referred to the late Helen Keller, saying that as Helen Keller put it, “Together we can do so much!”