Aside from a few write-in campaigns, this year’s city and school election featured no contested Hampton City Council races. However, the council will still welcome a new member in the coming year.
Jeanne Fay will be the newest member of the Hampton City Council after winning the at-large seat. Fay received 234 votes during the election, defeating a write-in campaign from Lisa Hill.
Fay is originally from Cedar Rapids and moved to Colorado after college. Fay tells RadioOnTheGo News she lived in Colorado for nearly 40 years but missed the small town feel in Iowa and ultimately decided to move back here a few years ago.
“It just got a little crowded. I didn’t really know my neighbors out there at all. So I was looking forward to getting back to that small town feel. Obviously Cedar Rapids has gotten to be much bigger than a small town at this point. So it didn’t fit the bill for a small town for me anymore. So I ended up in Hampton.”
She says her decision to run for the at-large seat comes from her desire to give back to the community she loves.
“I started going to the city council meetings back in February and got interested in learning more about the town that way. And then learning more about the city council process, which I’d not ever really been involved in at that level before. And then just love seeing the things that the council was doing, the progress they’ve made on the nuisance properties and things like that. And just thought, you know, I think this is something that I could help with.”
Fay adds that she wants to carry forward the council’s initiatives, whether that means addressing nuisance properties or updating ordinances.
“The (nuisance) properties. I think we are getting some good momentum on those and keeping on course with that. The urban chickens is going to come up again. The mayor has committed to looking at that in more depth and investigating whether we should amend the ordinance that currently stands. I come from an area where they did allow urban chickens, but with a lot of restrictions. So I’ve seen it both sides.”
Fay will officially begin her duties in January.
Photo courtesy of Jeanne Fay City Councilor Facebook page
