In Carmi Mayor Bill Stendeback’s inaugural State of the City address at the Carmi Chamber, he says his family was initially wary of his decision to run for office.
When I decided to do this, my family questioned me. Why on earth, after all those years working, 40 plus years in the funeral business, why would you want to take on something like this. 69 years old, been retired for 4 years. And I told them I felt an obligation to give back at this point in my life to possibly help the City of Carmi get into a better place. It may not happen 100% in my next 3 ½ years but I guarantee I will put all my effort into that.
Five months into the job, Stendeback is still learning but also working on a variety of efforts to try to make living, working, and enjoying Carmi more appealing while also looking to streamline and make government more efficient. He says one of the things he’s learned and witnessed firsthand is the commitment and work ethic of city employees. Additionally, he talked about improvements recently completed and upcoming from Schumaker Street to Sycamore, the water tower to tennis courts, and the city pool. At Tuesday’s (tonight) city council meeting, we expect to learn more about how he intends to save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card processing fees. He also talked about improvements at the airport and said officials are working to obtain more grant money for additional efforts throughout the city.