New Mayor-elect highlights plans for Snow Hill

SNOW HILL, Md. – Snow Hill’s future– is looking bright. After 8 months without a leader, a new face is taking over the mayor position, and Gary Weber is preparing to breathe new life into the town.

“We look very optimistically that things are going to change,” said Richard Smith.

First up on Weber’s list? To get more families to put their roots down in the town. But the only way to do that, Weber says, is by creating more housing.

“We have teachers and we have other professionals that would like to live in the town as well as working in the town,” Smith said.

“We need to build more housing so that’s going to be one of my primary focuses is to increase the population by building housing and hopefully getting builders interested in Snow Hill,” said Weber.

Being a business owner himself, Weber says he understands the importance of bringing foot traffic to downtown to help businesses thrive which was a major selling point for voters.

“He understands a lot more of what people need and what people have to go through ,Everything when it comes to business,” said Smith.

“If we grow the population the shops will be filled it’ll be more vibrant and a viable for the local residence but it also be more attractive to tourists,” said Weber.

Many hope Weber will fulfill his promise and continue to focus his attention on the downtown district. An area that people say is hurting.

“I think it really is important to have a healthy downtown district for property values and attracting new jobs and attracting new development,” said

Jerry’s Toys and Woodcraft owner Diana Nolte.

While Weber says he’s got a lot of work ahead of him, he’s committed to making the town a better place to live.

“It’s a very welcoming and supportive place to come and I want to continue that,” said Weber.

Weber adds that he’s looking forward to being sworn into his new position on Tuesday June 11th, at the next town meeting. As for the other positions up for election, Melisa Weidner took the race for Central District Council over incumbent Jenny Hall. As for the Western District council seat, although the race still has not been decided, incumbent LaToya Purnell leads by 31 votes over Mark Nixon.