When city council meetings begin in Lindsay next January Councilmember Pam Kimball hopes emotions won't overcome the city's best interests.
"I think it's going to be a challenging term with the changes on the council, there's going to be some hard feelings to get over because there was a lot of criticism and controversy and so on," Kimball said.
Next year Kimball will be joined by newcomers Rosaena Sanchez and Steven Mecum who received over 19 and 16 percent of the votes respectively.
The two beat out long-time incumbents Esteban Velasquez and Mayor Ed Murray who have both been in office since 1996. They were also part of a recall effort to kick out the current council members.
Over the last few years the current city council received criticism over claims of water hikes to pay city salaries, an audit that showed mismanagement of money by a former city manager and a lawsuit from the County of Tulare over unpaid bills.
Kimball hopes the new city council will take steps towards civility.
"So that we can work together and focusing on the facts and data and not personalities and not politics and division because we have certainly challenges to overcome and it's going to take us working together," Kimball said.
As city hall prepares to welcome some new faces, Lindsay's school district is anxiously waiting for all the votes to be tallied to see if a bond measure passed.
Measure L will help modernize aging schools like Jefferson Elementary, plus build two gymnasiums. The measure needs 55 percent approval to pass. On Wednesday night it had received 54.86%.
"So far we feel pretty optimistic about it we obviously would like the decision to be finalized and made but we will be waiting around for he next couple days and weeks to see if we can make it over that 55% threshold," Lindsay Unified Superintendent Tom Rooney said.
Just an additional six to ten votes could help the measure pass.
