Joe Spilman is running for election to the Vevay Town Council for the first time, but is also running for re-election. The Republican was appointed to fill the vacancy left on the board when Josh South resigned after being named as a County Commissioner about 18 months ago; and is looking forward to continuing to help move the town forward if he’s elected to a four year term.
Spilman says that he hopes to focus on bringing more activities into town, from little league to tourism events.
“I will tell you that, going forward should I happen to get elected again, one thing that I am going to push for and try and work on during the next year or so is that I would like to bring the kids baseball games specifically back down to the park,” he said. “I don’t think our park is utilized like it should be. I remember when I was little we used to have the knothole games down there; and now they’ve all moved to Markland. I would like to see our park utilized more for that, and maybe bring more people into the community. That’s one of the projects that I’m going to be looking forward to.”
Spilman said that he doesn’t really see any big challenges for the town moving forward, and believes that the current town council has done a good job of doing the necessary work to keep things running smoothly.
“The three who are on there now, I think we’ve done a good job. We’ve really worked well together, and we’ve been able to accomplish and pretty much be on the same page with each other as far as what’s best for the town financially,” Spilman said. “I think at this point, the town is being managed very well. I don’t know if I see any really big challenges other than I would like to see our tourism grow as a town and as a county, but as a town specifically.”
Spilman said that he sees many positive attributes in the town that could be used to attract tourists and visitors.
“We have a nice town, and it’s nice for people to come and spend the weekend,” he said. “I know that here recently, the past couple of years, we’ve been working on having more events in town. The Beer Bash was one of those. I see more events coming to Vevay that more people are participating in, and it’s becoming more of a tourism highlight for people.”
Spilman said that right now the town council doesn’t have any big projects planned for the future, but said that he knows that the town is focusing on maintaining town streets, especially after some portions of streets have had to be dug up in the past to work on water and sewer lines.
“As long as the finances are there, I’d like to see those streets fixed and maintained. We also know that, even though the past couple of years we’ve worked to fix some of our sidewalks, there are some in town which still need to be fixed. That’s a gradual project that I hope to see accomplished over the next couple of years, as we have the finances available to do that.”
A native of Vevay, Spilman sees it as a privilege and an honor to help run a town he grew up in. An Army veteran, He currently serves as a deputy on the Switzerland County Sheriff’s Department, so he has filled his life with serving his community and his country.
“I was a junior in high school when 9/11 happened, and when that happened, I knew at that moment what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,” he said. “That was to serve my community and my country. That’s my lifelong mission to serve my community and the people around me.”