By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Sometimes all it takes is a face-to-face meeting to feel like your concerns are really being heard.
Galion resident Cindy Long had talked to Senator Rob Portman’s office before about the SNAP education issue, which is the educational portion of the food stamps in the farm bill, but the interaction had been a bit impersonal. It was then she decided to take her concerns to an actual person rather than through neutral emails.
Much to Long’s satisfaction, she was able to address her concerns to a member of Portman’s staff, who held an hour-long open session in Bucyrus City Hall Monday afternoon. The representative was on hand to listen to any concerns as well as provide information.
“I had talked to him on the phone before in January but then, to actually talk to someone face-to-face, you see them taking notes, they’ll take your email, they’ll forward things to you,” Long said. “I as a citizen really want to know, first of all, that people do hear us and they have to make their own decisions but also how we can help too. So I was pretty excited about that today.”
Long said Portman’s office will be sending her some information about what their plans are too.
She believed it was important for the citizens to be offered the chance to speak with a representative of the government officials.
“I kind of been in that mode for years, I was kind of raised that way and other women have mentored me that way, that women and men should be involved (in their government),” Long said.
Mayor Roger Moore and Bucyrus Councilman Bill O’Rourke also stopped by to chat with Stephen White, who serves as Central District Director and General Counsel for Portman’s office. Their discussion ranged from the airports and industrial park to heroin addiction and the local brain drain. They gave the staff member a view on what was happening locally.
“Our niche is getting hometown people to invest in our hometown,” Moore said. “The businesses we have are surviving but they just had to reinvent themselves at some point.”
Moore added that the Bucyrus community was no different than other communities out there as they struggled with jobs and drugs. But until the senators and congressmen do what needs to be done, Moore said, it wouldn’t matter how much energy was being put forth by the communities.