Hot Springs New Mayor

After more than two months of waiting, the Hot Springs city council elected Randy Woods, owner of Spring Auto Care and the current Hot Springs Fire Chief, to be the town's new mayor last Wednesday at the city hall.

Woods was joined by Nina Decoster, a self-employed painter, who also applied. Both of them were interviewed by the city council, followed by a private meeting for discussion. They then opened the meeting back up to the public and unanimously voted for Woods.

“I'm very excited, now I can help the community that helped me for so many years,” Woods said about his election. He also said that he intended to put in many hours to get for organization purposes.

“I have planned to devote quite a few hours a day just to this job and I'll probably be involved heavily for three to four hours a day for awhile,” Woods said about the job.

Former Mayor Renea Keough resigned via e-mail last May. Keough lost her eyesight last year and is currently in Florida attending a rehabilitation center for adult blindness. A petition was circulating advocating Keough resign after hiring her ex-felon boyfriend as the city dogcatcher and the clouds surrounding the resignation of Hot Springs Police Chief Tim Coleman.

Woods was said he was happy to take the job and that he planned to work on fundamentals.

“I think the vision has gotten increasingly big for the town and some of the things that have been going on lately are for bigger cities,” Woods said. “We need to back up and get our town to the way it was before.”

Specifically, Woods said he wanted to work on the basic utilities and transportation needs within the town, making it more easily accessible and functional for residents.

“We need to get our infrastructure in place, we need to have streets, we need to have water and sewer we need all that in place and in good working order,” Woods said.

While being interviewed, he told the city council that he was interested in hearing the opinions of everybody and that he'd even be available for late night calls in case of emergencies.

“It's nice to hear other view points because you might be thinking one thing and someone else might have a better idea,” Woods said. “The biggest thing is to listen to everyone.”

City council members said one of their biggest concerns about appointing Woods was the time he might be able to dedicate to the job. The city council wondered whether or not he could fulfill both roles as mayor and fire chief. The council especially wanted to know what his family thought about the position.

“Their OK with it, I got their permission first,” Woods said with a smile. “The biggest concern for the family is that in the evenings I'm home.” He added that he'd be available to public all day long because of his business and then in the afternoons as well.

The city council said they chose Woods in part because of his financial abilities.

“My vision of it, is that it is a business, the business of running the city of Hot Springs and the biggest challenges we have is always the money and defining the budget,” council member Leslie Smith said. “We really, without a lot of additional funding, can't afford to expand the city anymore because of our infrastructure is at our capacity.”

Woods has financial experience from his ownership of Spring Auto Care and the 14 years he's worked as the Hot Springs Fire Chief managing tight funding and applying for grants to pay for necessary equipment costs. His other experience consists of working as a personnel director for the Hot Springs Ambulance and serving as the Sanders County Fire Chief. He is currently also the President of the Sanders County Fire Association.

Woods also stressed his local connections.

“My biggest strength is that I've lived here all of my life,” he said. “I've seen things that worked and that didn't work and especially in the budgeting realm,” Wood said.

Woods will remain in office until November 2009, when he will run for public re-election.