Richard Price has served a little more than one year on council and hopes Ironton residents will give him the chance to continue working for the city.

Friday, November 02, 2001

Richard Price has served a little more than one year on council and hopes Ironton residents will give him the chance to continue working for the city.

Price has been on council since July of last year, filling the unexpired seat left by councilman Joe Black. If elected this November, Price will finish out the remaining two years before he is required to run again.

Price is relatively new to running for public office. He has run for office only one other time – an attempt to win a seat on the Ironton school board.

Price said finding a way out of the city’s financial dire is the main priority facing the new council. The solution, however, may not be as easy as identifying the problem. "It’s easy to say jobs," Price said, "but you don’t just say the word and it comes."

Price said the most important role the city government can take is to provide the basic services expected by the citizens and developing the infrastructure to develop a climate businesses want. Price said when council talked to the Liebert Corp. officials, the existing building the city had for the company was one of the key selling points.

Price said it would be difficult to sell Ironton to a business looking for a place to relocate while at the same time, cutting the police and fire departments.

Price also advocates giving Ironton a world wide presence by creating a website for the city. In the electronic age and in the world of dot-com this and dot-com that, the city needs a presence on the world-wide web that could be used to attract businesses wanting to locate in the city.

Price said an electronic presence will also allow the residents to interact better with the government. Council’s agenda, resolutions, the city’s charter, and other documents, Price explained, could all be accessed by citizens with a mouse click. Price said it is important for the city to have a website in order to promote itself.

Price said he want to return to council so he can continue to work for the betterment of the city. He said serving on council was "doing his civic duty." He said he is running for office because he felt it would be like "bailing off the ship," if he didn’t try to do something for the city. Price said he feels like "I can make the right decisions to help the city," and he would like to continue working to bring Ironton out of the "slump" it’s facing.

Price moved to Ironton in 1965 , graduated from Ironton High School in 1975 and moved away for a short time to Maryland. He moved back to the city in 1987 and has lived here ever since.

Price is a machinist at CSX Railroad in Huntington, W.Va., and a member of the machinist local union 104.

Editor’s note: This is the fifth part of a series of interviews with those running for Ironton City Council. Council candidates are urged to contact the newsroom if they wish to be included.