Question from Anonymous

Mrs. Smart, i wanna thnak you for your time lastnight at lake reba for the pattie a clay star light race, As a City Commissioner will you be involved in community events and work to bring more to Richmond like a court days or mushroom fest that we can block off streets and have a 3 day event downtown to bring more money to our merchants here in Richmond. And work to have it all in one area insted of different places like the pottery fest. I dont know why they have the car show in one place and all the other stuff at irvine mcdowell park why not have it all together downtown????

Rita Smart answered:

I am very much interested in community events. Keep in mind the key word here is community. Citizens, organizations and people are what make court day, mushroom festival, etc. successful. We must get away from expecting the city government to do everything for us. We can use the city facilities, but I will work to encourage our citizens to take ownership for community events. We should have all our civic clubs, school and church groups, neighborhoods, the whole town involved in the pottery festival so we have downtown, Third street all the way to Irvine McDowell full of "stuff" as you said.