By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The audience was larger than usual for Thursday night’s Hays city commission meeting. In addition to a few city employees and interested residents, the room was mostly filled with members of Shaun Musil’s family.
They were there in support of Musil as he conducted his first meeting as the Hays mayor.
The governing body was reorganized as Eber Phelps stepped down as mayor and Musil became the new mayor after serving as vice-mayor since April 23, 2015. James Meier was named the new vice-mayor of Hays. Musil noted the city commission formerly reorganized in April but will now do so in September to comply with recent changes in state election law.
Musil thanked Phelps for his service as mayor and joked he had no practice running a meeting because Phelps had never missed a commission meeting as mayor. “I enjoyed being your vice-mayor,” Musil said to Phelps. “You never let me do much, but that’s all right,” Musil added as all the commissioners laughed.
A long list of major city accomplishments during Phelps’ turn as mayor was read by Musil who then presented Phelps with a recognition plaque.
Phelps recalled his first term on the Hays city commission was in 1995, the year Hays was named an “All-America City.” He noted the three ‘platform programs’ the city submitted to the national competition–volunteerism, curbside recycling and water conservation–are still thriving today.
“All three of those things we kind of rode to glory on 20 some years ago,” Phelps recalled. “And as you know, volunteerism in this community is unbelievable, (such as) our parks, that continues to this day.
“The recycling program still has 80 percent-plus participation. Our recycling center is a very busy place. It’s very efficient. You ca drive down the streets, look down the alleys, and you will see all the blue bags lined up and the cardboard.
“Our long-term water efforts–we’ve put in the applications to the state Department of Water Resources for the Water Transfer Act (for the R9 Ranch in Edwards County).
“The water conservation education programs continue to this day. That was not a one-time shot. It became part of our lifestyle. Contrary to when we implemented water conservation, everybody didn’t move from Hays and people continue to move here today. It was a bold move,” he declared.
“I’m just happy to see those three things that made us an All-America City, continue to this day. I think I can safely say Hays is still an All-America City in my view,” Phelps added, “and we’ve got great citizens here and I’ve enjoyed working with so many of them.”