Branstetter for mayor

I know Heather and Lynn both care deeply about this community and have spent years in service to the city. I could see how it is a hard decision for one to choose. Here is my take: Heather and Lynn were both born and raised here. What a blessing. I was not. However, I did make a risky, profound and tenuous decision to CHOOSE to live here. I sold my home and my business and left behind friends and family. I moved my young children here. I invested everything I had into a building and business in Wallace. It was risky and scary, but it was the right decision and I rarely look back. I am not alone. There have been many 40-somethings who have done the same thing by moving here, starting businesses, investing in crumbling buildings and raising families here. I need a mayor who is going to respect and protect my interests, not one who considers my presence a threat.

Wallace needs a mayor who will guide and promote tourism because whether we like it or not, change is coming and we cannot stop it by refusing to change or grow. We need proactive policy because we cannot make rules or laws to stop things that we don't want after the fact, as we are seeing with our mountainsides. Heather has been working to re-do the Comprehensive Plan that is shockingly overdue and the onus for that lies with the people who have been with city government for a decade or decades. Heather is highly educated, even-tempered, and has shown that she can work with people that she doesn’t necessarily agree with. She can remain unbiased. These are just a few of the reasons I implore you to vote with me, for Heather Branstetter.

KATIE WATTERSON

Wallace