At Tuesday's swearing in ceremony, Paul Harpole becomes Mayor Harpole and says he believes his victory was a vote for the city.
"They voted forthe candidate, but they also said they wanted the city to keep moving forward as it has been and continue on the path that it's one."
His priorities for the city mirror a lot of those from Mayor McCartt's time in office, with the city's revitalization being the top item.
"Downtown will be revitalized. It won't be to everybody's dream, but it will be a culmination of lots of ideas and we'll see how it all works."
And that leads to possible civic center expansion which also increases tourism, which brings in millioNs to the city ever year.
"Our sales tax revenue comes in at 40 million dollars; 60 percent of that, or abotu 24 million dollars comes from people outside Amarillo that coem here to spend their money and enjoy Amarilo. We need to increase that number, more things for them to spend their money on...We have a good tourist business, but we need to build a convention business, too."
Cleaning up graffiti was also one of his top platform items during the campaign and he intends to keep on top of that, along with maintaining the city's budget, bringing up the fact that fewer than 150 cities in the U-S also have a triple A bond rating, and water issues.
"We're looking at water and infrastructure. They city has done a great job of purchasing water and now we have to build the infrastructure to protect our water rights. We'll do that throught eh state legislature, Senator Seliger and Representatives Smithee and Four Price. They'll help us protect our water rights...We have water for the next 200 years and we need to keep that water. We'll do that."
And the Mayor has already hit the ground with his feet running, anxious to get to work.
