Thanksgiving Spotlight: A Runaway Bay Resident Going the Extra Mile

Community Highlight: Haylee Olsen

This Thanksgiving, we’re grateful for the residents because you make Runaway Bay feel like home. Today, we want to shine a light on a young resident who absolutely crushed her College Government Module by doing something rare - she reached out, asked questions, and got involved.

Earlier this month, Haylee emailed Mayor Herman White after struggling to find information on how our local government works. Instead of guessing, she took the initiative to learn directly from the source. Mayor White invited her to City Hall, where she sat down with Judge Karen Green, City Secretary Misty Choate, and additional staff for a one-on-one conversation about the inner workings of our little town.

Haylee didn’t stop there. She turned that visit into an A+ assignment (our assessment and recommendation) that highlights our city structure, elected officials, ongoing projects, and issues. She also expressed interest attending a City Council meeting to continue her incredible example of civic engagement!

Below is the email she sent to the mayor and her full government module, shared with her permission:

EMAIL TO THE MAYOR:

"Hello,

I wanted to write and say thank you again for meeting with me, I really appreciated the time and effort you guys put into answering my questions and helping me complete my assignment. I wanted to send it to you guys so you could see how I incorporated your input and views.

Thank you for this opportunity!"

GOVERNMENT MODULE 11 DISCUSSION 13 RESPONSE

BY HAYLEE OLSEN:

Hi everyone!

The town I live in is a small town called Runaway Bay of about 1,500 residents. The type of government we have in our little town is General Law and not home rule. In our city council we have 4 members, Richard Griffin, Todd Low, Steve Holt, and Chris Petty. A mayor, Herman white, Mayor Pro Tem, Carolyn Moody, our Municipal Judge, Karen Green, and a city secretary, Misty Choate. The requirements to serve on our city council are, to be a registered voter in Wise County, be at least 18 years old, must be a resident of Runaway Bay for at least 12 months, and no prior major criminal convictions such as a felony, especially in recent years. I struggled to find information about our city council members and how they are elected, so I contacted our mayor who invited me to City Hall for a meeting with our judge, and other city hall employees, as well as himself. I learned that our city council members will be elected on May 3rd. Terms for our council members are generally 2 years.

When I spoke with Judge Green, she had mentioned we use staggered terms. Members have 2-year terms so that there is always someone on our council that knows what is happening with planning and events, and we do not get behind and unable to function properly. During this personal meeting they also invited me to a city council meeting, which I plan to attend soon. I researched our past city council meeting prior to this discussion and during this city council meeting there was discussion over a program called Wreaths Across America, improving the city burn pile to improve our safety, our closed down golf course & rezoning, the local Smoke on the Water event coming up, approval over finance reports, approval of accounts payable reports, and our city’s water supply and shortages, among many other pressing issues.

There was lots of stress on protecting the cities' financial stability with improvements and grants. During this council meeting the topics that had stood out most to me personally were the discussions of the closed-down golf course. There has been major controversy in our community over this golf course, and people feel very strongly of it being reopened or rezoned. The other issue that I found important was the topic of our water. We get regular boil water notices due to water lines being worked on in Runaway Bay, and the discussion over improvement of this topic was very comforting, and the topic of grants helping to fix the infrastructure our small town was reassuring.

This entire experience was extremely overwhelming in the best way possible. Getting to meet with Judge Green, Mayor White, and additional employees was probably the most exciting experience out of this entire semester. The amount of educational information I gained by reaching out was very helpful. I learned so much about Runaway Bay, the way our city functions, and the strong and welcoming community that has been built. I am not a very extroverted person so going to a personal meeting was eye opening and informational. Overall, this discussion has been one of my favorite discussion posts this semester and I am proud to be a resident of my small city, Runaway Bay.

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Haylee’s willingness to step outside her comfort zone, meet with city leaders, and learn firsthand how local government works represents the kind of community spirit we are thankful for this holiday season.

We hope her example encourages other residents to be just as curious, engaged, and adventurous. Your city doors are always open.

From all of us at City Hall,

Happy Thanksgiving, Runaway Bay! 🧡🦃