Florence City Council candidates were asked to submit information about themselves and their desire to be elected or re-elected to Florence City Council.
Mayor Mary Shipman did not submit information.
Florence City Council
Ward 1 candidate
John Swarm
Q: Why do you want to be elected?
Swarm: Everybody needs to serve. It is my time to step up and do so.
Q: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the current administration?
Swarm: Hard to say without knowing the specifics of budget constraints. I am hoping they are doing the best they can with what they have.
Q: What is your background or what are your qualifications for office?
Swarm: No experience in public office. Just a hard worker who sees a need.
Q: What are your goals for the city? How do you plan to accomplish them?
Swarm: 1. Clean up debris and unsafe homes. 2. Grocery store for locals. 3. Ignite in this small town a sense of can-do spirit.
Q: What is the most important issue for the city? Why?
Swarm: Cleanup. If you do not have a sense of pride in how you look, it affects everything else.
Florence City Council Ward 2 candidates
Holly Pereillo
Q: Why do you want to be elected?
Pereillo: I would like to make a positive difference, grow roots, and be involved in my community.
Q: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the current administration?
Pereillo: I do not have an opinion about the current administration.
Q: What is your background or what are your qualifications for office?
Pereillo: I am an active participant in the Florence Focus Group and a current board member of the Florence Foundation. I am currently attending trainings sponsored by Leadership Marion County and the Community Development Academy.
I have owned several small businesses and was personally active in each level of the businesses. I have experience in administrative assistance, contracts, bookkeeping, research, legal issues, secretarial work, insurance, sales, property management, and customer service.
I try to be aware of how each person’s actions contribute to and effect the world around them. I believe I am well grounded while being open minded and fair, helping people help themselves. I am not afraid of hard work and participate in what needs to be done for everyone to succeed together. I enjoy community events, volunteering and getting to know people.
Q: What are your goals for the city? How do you plan to accomplish them?
Pereillo: I would like to see Florence as a fun, appealing town that can meet the needs and desires of its residents and anyone who comes to visit. As a member of the city council, I can hear from the citizens of Florence and participate in decisions that will affect the city.
Q: What is the most important issue for the city? Why?
Pereillo: I believe the most important issue facing the city of Florence is the lack of prospering industry. I believe this is necessary to create a healthy and thriving city that people would want to live in and visit.
Q: Other information?
Pereillo: My current career is that of a full time wife and mother. My husband is very supportive and the light of my life. Our three wonderful children are ages 12, 8, and 3. They keep us very busy and we enjoy being involved in their lives. We look forward to raising our family and building our future in Florence.
I enjoy tutoring, home schooling, teaching Sunday school, small group Bible studies, teens and kids programs such as AWANAS. I am currently helping with the kids KIX program in Florence. I love crafts, dancing, organic cooking, and learning new things.
Trayce E. Warner
Q: Why do you want to be re-elected?
Warner: There are projects I would like to see happen for the benefit of Florence, and I believe that a position on the council is an effective way of making them occur.
Q: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the current administration?
Warner: As an incumbent, I would like to say “satisfied,” however there are things that I would have liked to see go another way. That’s politics. Overall, I believe this council has worked very hard to provide the best possible services for the citizens of Florence, and to find the most responsible answers to tough situations. I am honored and happy to have worked with two very committed mayors and a group of city employees whom I consider second to none.
Q: What is your background or what are your qualifications for office?
Warner: I am currently a council member, ending a four-year term. I have been a Florence resident for 21 years and active in not only this community but the larger community of Marion County.
Q: What are your goals for the city? How do you plan to accomplish them?
Warner: Seeing much needed street work accomplished. We have mostly been in emergency repair mode. There is capital improvement money available in our coffers and hopefully the state funded programs will have money available in the next year or two. I would also like to see more business in our downtown and hilltop areas. During the past four years, I have been developing a network of economic development experts to help us with these improvements. Also I am committed to seeing more opportunities available to the youth of our community. I would like for there to be programs that utilize our gym and YCAT buildings for classes and activities. I have been working to make the parks more enjoyable with improvements to equipment and a new handicapped-accessible water fountain at the park that most of the kids in town use. We are very lucky to have a strong leader in our pool manager, and I would like to find someone willing to step up in the same way to coordinate a recreation department.
Q: What is the most important issue for the city? Why?
Warner: The economy is of course a huge issue right now. Also there seems to be a feeling of apathy in Florence. Kind of a “We’ve lost everything (school grocery, businesses, population, etc.) We don’t really expect anything good to happen.” And yet there have been new residents moving to town and longtime residents with positive projects happening — such as Doyle Creek Mercantile, Florence Farmers’ Market, Old Goat Inn B&B, and a party interested in reopening the nursing home as examples. There are also the businesses who even though they may have struggled, are staying open.
Q: More information?
Warner: My age is 54, been married to Mike for 32 years, mother of three Marion-Florence High School graduates — Tisha, Kade, and Cody. Involved with Marion County Economic Development Council and Leadership Marion County, the Florence Chamber of Commerce, and the Labor Day Committee. Currently an inactive EMT.
USD 408 board of education candidates were asked to reply to questions about themselves and the board position. Incumbents Christopher Sprowls, position 1; Ronald Duane Kirkpatrick Jr., position 3, and Sarah Cope, at-large position, did not respond to our request.
Following are the responses from Jeremiah A. Lange, candidate for position 2.
USD 408 Board of Education position 2 candidate
Jeremiah A. Lange
Q: Why do you want to be elected?
Lange: Having lived in Marion for more than five years now I have been able to observe the functions of the school district from my home, the schools, the bleachers, and most recently as a member of MESBIT. I believe we are blessed to have good teachers who seek the best for their students. As a father of a kindergarten student, I am aware that there are no members of the school board who have children in the elementary school. I want to make sure that those students and staff have someone on the board who is aware of what is happening in their building. But above and beyond that, I want to help ensure that we have the best schools possible for our students to learn and for our teachers to teach.
Q: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the current administration?
Lange: If I were to reply that I am satisfied that would imply that I think things are perfect. Anyone who has spent time in schools knows that is not the case. Our current administration is faced with multiple challenges each day that present obstacles to providing our teachers and students with the best environments to achieve their potential. With that said, our current administration is working tirelessly to make USD 408 the best.
Q: What is your background or what are your qualifications for office?
Lange: I was raised by a mom who was a fifth-grade teacher, my brother became a teacher after graduating from college, and my wife, Danielle, worked as a fifth and sixth-grade teacher in Temple City, Calif., while I pursued my master’s degree. I realize those statements appear to be more relevant as to why my mom, brother, or wife are qualified. However, I have found that being in the immediate vicinity in which teachers work one can gain a perspective as to what happens in schools and what happens between school boards and school employees. For the 2010-11 academic year, I have served on the MESBIT committee that meets at the elementary school four times a year.
Outside of academics I sit on the Presbytery of Southern Kansas Council. We are responsible for leading the Presbytery, which is made up of 66 churches with more than 10,000 members. I moderate the Presbytery of Southern Kansas Camping Committee and oversaw the fundraising and building of a $450,000 chapel in 2010 for our Presbytery camp, Westminster Woods, in southeast Kansas near Fredonia.
I believe in an advisory board setting. I am a good listener and am able to process information quickly. As a preacher I have developed the ability to take the time to evaluate what I am about to say before I say it and I consider how it will be heard once said. This, I believe, is a necessary quality for board members.
Q: What are your goals for the school district? How do you plan to accomplish them?
Lange: I want to stem the tide of apathy that seems to be growing among our adolescents. I want to make sure that teachers and staff are encouraged in their work and empowered to reach students in innovative and exciting ways. I want to make sure that the products of our schools match our school district’s most recent construction projects — we should be producing students that are impressive, exciting, leading edge, and looking forward.
All of these goals will require similar things. We as a community will need to learn how to come alongside our parents and students to help students fulfill and even exceed their potential. We will need to listen to teachers who are on the front lines of seeing what works and what doesn’t and provide them with the means to reach students. And we will need to be forward looking ourselves. We cannot afford to utter the seven last words of a dying church, “We’ve never done it that way before,” as we talk about the future of the school district. There is no doubt that the world around us is changing faster than anyone of us predicted it would change, yet we as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, and even bystanders have a role to play, as part of this school district, to see that our students are prepared for the world into which they are stepping.
Q: What is the most important issue for the school district? Why? Funding is a major issue for all schools right now. How do you think the district can cope with funding issues?
Lange: Inadequate funding is the most important issue we are facing right now. Because of budget cuts and population changes, we are faced with changing how we do school because we can no longer continue to do it the way it has been done. In order for this to work the school board, administration, teachers, staff, and students will need to be willing to be creative in how we do school in the foreseeable future.
I will be watching with anxiety and anticipation the decisions that the current board makes regarding the funding status. Following their decisions, I hope to be a part of a process that looks critically at what it is that we can offer our students to help prepare them to enter into a rapidly changing culture that will expect them to adapt, lead, teach, and inspire.
Q: More information?
Lange: I am married to my best friend, Danielle, “Dani.” She and I have two children. Sadie is a 5-year-old kindergarten student and Keenan is a 2-year-old who loves to play. I am blessed to serve the Marion Presbyterian Church as their pastor. I feel passionately that Marion is the town my family and I are called to be in and I am committed to making sure that this is the best place possible to raise my family and for others to raise theirs.