On Monday, December 8th, a new mayor will take office. Mayor-Elect David Chess will be sworn in at 6:30 p.m. at Stratford High School, and the ceremony is open to the public. Local elections provide an opportunity for the voices of our local residents to be heard via their votes, as well as to serve on the Town Council, the Board of Education, Zoning, and more. On Monday, the oath of office ceremony will again bring our community together in support of individuals committed to serving their districts, and our community at large.
Our local election season was filled with door-knocking by candidates and/or their team. There were two public debates by the mayoral candidates, Mayor Laura Hoydick and now Mayor-Elect David Chess. Other mayoral candidates bubbled to the surface, one of whom challenged Dr. Chess in a primary, although he was the candidate endorsed by the Democratic party and easily won the primary. In the end, a Democratic mayor was chosen, a change for a town like ours in which the Republican Party had held office for over 16 years.
In 2009, Republican John Harkins was elected mayor and served two terms from 2009 until 2017, when he chose not to run for reelection. In 2017, Laura Hoydick, Republican, was elected, and served two terms.
Mayor-Elect David Chess is the new kid on the block, so to speak. His professional career has been as a physician and businessman. Dr. Chess has a rather ambitious agenda in front of him, from his goal to create community leaders in each district, to dealing with the reevaluation fears of property tax increases, to rebuilding the morale within the police and fire departments, the remediation of the Army plant, and so much more. Time will tell what he can truly accomplish, how, and with whom. He said during one of his debates, “I am not a politician. I will get the right people who know more than me.”
It is in community that we will move forward, and whatever the future holds, we are in it together.
Editor’s Personal Note: I moved to Stratford in 2014 with my family. We chose to move to Stratford because of the diversity, because of the faces that walked around town that looked like ours, because of the out, gay families with kids (like ours), and because we wanted to own a home. We bought our house, our son started school at Wilcoxson, and we settled into building our lives here.
Personally, I am grateful to live in a town in which the first female mayor was elected.
This artical states that he had two debates. I asked about that and he said mayor Hoyldick did not want to debate. I didn’t believe that , shes a very strong woman. And the best mayor this town ever had, she was a congress women before being our mayor. He had one debate suposely with his friends at oranoke villge with all his friends that was closed to the rest of the town. So were was the debate hes talking about? Which i didn’t know until after the electio n. Mayor Hoyldick thank you for being the best mayor we ever had.and Godnless you. And mayor Chess good luck, and i hope you do a good job for all the people in our great coummity.