See Dick's Opponents Run - Part I

Municipal elections are fast approaching. In Florence two candidates have announced they will be giving long-time District 2 Councilman Dick Jordan some opposition. One is political newcomer River Zurinsky. Here's an exclusive update on his platform:

I am River Zurinsky. I have enjoyed reading your posts for the past several years. As I am sure you are aware, I am the first candidate to announce running for the District 2 City Council Seat in Florence for this August's elections. I am only 21 years old and a few years ago if you would have told me I would be running for office now I probably wouldn't have believed you. A few months ago when I saw how Room At The Table was being treated by the current city council I knew I had to do something. While it is important to get Room At The Table operating in their own building I know that is just the start of what needs to be done. One of the first things I will be doing if I get elected is introducing legislation which will add the phrase "In God We Trust" to our police cars and our fire trucks. Whenever I am in Iuka, Mississippi I love seeing "In God We Trust" on their police cars and I find it very important we add the phrase to ours. Besides adding that motto to our police cars, I also want to increase the pay that our police officers and firefighters receive. As I talked about in my interview with the Times Daily, I recently learned that Muscle Shoals is paying their police officers more money than Florence, and we need to make sure our police officers and our fire fighters are getting fair pay. The forth thing I want to do in office is get an official City Of Florence dog park built. I heard a group had raised about $900,000 dollars to build one, and it was supposed to be built on part of the old McFarland Park Golf Course but it never happened. I want to finally get that done!

Speaking of the old McFarland Park Golf Course, I wanted to use this e-mail to talk about that as well as the old ECM site. Those were 2 things I didn't talk about in my Times Daily interview. I wanted to focus on Room At The Table as well as our Firefighters and Police Officers for the interview because those are the things I feel like need my attention first if I am able to get elected. After we focus on those things I want to have a public meeting whether it be a livestream online or in person to discuss what should be done with those sites.

With the old ECM site I recognize there are several citizens who live nearby and I believe whatever is done with that site we need to make sure their voices are heard. I want to hold that meeting before I announce a plan because I believe I need to hear all their ideas and concerns.

The old McFarland Park Golf Course I still think would be a good location for the dog park I want to build, even building the dog park at that location I know there will still be so much usable space not taken up by the dog park or the Tourism building. I remember when I was younger going to Funland. Funland is obviously long shut down but I feel like something for children other than the playground and ball fields should be down there. Some things I think might be popular include a Skate Park and a Splash Pad. I also believe an Amphitheater would be popular as local bands already play there frequently. I like the idea of building a few more pavilions down there as well. McFarland park needs nicer spaces for people to have picnics that are covered from rain. Larger pavilions could also be used as wedding venues. I think at the Cyprus Creek end of McFarland Park that city could build a canoe/kayak storage facility. It would be a place where local residents could store their canoes and kayaks when they aren't out on the Tennessee River or Cyprus Creek and the storage facility would help pay for everything I think could be built on the old golf course. I know the old golf course is big enough to put all that down there and there still be some room left over.

2 other things I would like to do is put an Aquarium in Florence (I know the Tourism center has a small one but I would like to see a place with an Aquarium with local Tennessee River fish species but also popular saltwater fish species which would be an educational tool for children) I had the idea several years ago that the aquarium could be located within the Children's Museum. I also have spoken with some of our firefighters and they have told me they hope to one day have a fire station on or around Darby Drive to better serve that area of the city. While that part of Florence is not in District 2 I want to work with the mayor and the rest of the city council to see if that is feasible.

Besides all that, I did touch on in my interview with the Times Daily that I want to put pedestrian signals at the intersections of Pine and Mobile, Pine and Tombigbee, and Pine and Tuscaloosa. I know especially with Courtview Towers being located there that there are a lot of pedestrians in that area. Those lights are dangerous at busy times of the day without having those signals, also a lot of the pedestrian signals on Court Street are not functioning properly. Next time you drive down Court Street look at the intersections of Court and Mobile, Court and Tombigbee, and Court and Tuscaloosa, none of those pedestrian signals have the buttons. That means those lights can't even recognize when a pedestrian is there and needing to cross, the lights at Court and Alabama, Court and College, and Court and Dr. Hicks do have the buttons but the Don't Walk / Walk lights are burned out. I will see that this gets fixed ASAP before someone gets hurt!

I wanted to reach out to you since I am running for the first time and I realized that you probably don't know much about me. I saw where you made a post about a candidate running in Muscle Shoals who hasn't answered people's questions, and find it important to make myself readily available to answer the questions the citizens of Florence have for me. If I am able to win my goal is to be available day and night to address the needs of the people in this city. I feel the current city council has let the citizens down and I think most importantly I want the voters of not just District 2 but of the whole city to know that things can be different!

I have started an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/riverzurinskystar/ and I hope to use it to interact with people not just now, but after the election is over regardless of whether I win or lose.People can also e-mail me at electriverzurinsky@yahoo.com

Next: A perennial candidate pops up again...