SMALL TOWN USA: CIVIC DUTY KEEPS COMMUNITIES ALIVE

Thomas Meyr is the mayor of Altenburg.

Marilyn Crites thought it was her civic duty to accept the job of mayor of Whitewater, population 103. After all, she was born and raised in the community.

"Back in 1992, people on the board were afraid that we'd be unincorporated because nobody was showing interest in running," Crites said. "So it was sort of my sense of civic duty."

Crites didn't want to see all the work that had been done in the community wasted if the five-member town board crumbled.

As a member of the town board, she was elected to the position when the former mayor asked for a rest from political life. "At a meeting right after the elections, we just talked about who wanted to be mayor," Crites said.

The town board elects a mayor from its membership.

It wasn't a job she expected to have, but "it's been a learning experience," she said. Crites' term began in the midst of Whitewater's biggest project -- construction of a new water system.

"It was all new to me and getting oriented was difficult at first," she said.

But after getting her feet wet with the water project, Crites is ready to tackle nearly anything.

She's already solved some of the community's problems with pets running loose on the street and repairing town streets. But there are still things to be done.

"One of my goals is to try and talk more with the mayors of small towns," Crites said.

She worked closely with the Allenville town board and mayor during installation of the water system, which both towns share.

Crites' counterparts in Altenburg and Frohna also work closely on improvement projects. The two communities share membership on a natural gas board.

"We do a lot of talking with the neighboring towns," Meyr said. "We work together with them."

Until he became mayor, Thomas Meyr never realized the amount of work it takes to run a town, until he became mayor of Altenburg.

"When I was just the average citizen, I didn't know there was that much involved in it," he said. "I've learned what goes on and all the things everybody took for granted."

But the experience has been worth it. "There's a lot of pride in this city," Meyr said.

When there are projects or work to be done in town, like putting up new street signs, the alderman and city employees do it themselves, Meyr said.

"There's really not much to do, but we take care of it ourselves. In a bigger city, you usually have someone else do it for you."

Meyr, who also works at East Perry County Lumber Co., is serving his second term as mayor of the Perry County town.

During his first campaign Meyr spent about a year's wages on advertising. But it wasn't really much, he said.

"Our wages aren't much, it just shows we get paid something," he said. Compensation packages average about $250 a year for many small town mayors.

Like other small town mayors, Meyr didn't take the job for the profit. "I just wanted to see the town move in a more positive way," he said.