New Houston mayor hopes for healing

HOUSTON — The new mayor of the Valley’s smallest town said she has one main goal for the four-month term that lies ahead.

“Make peace,” Rosemary Burnett said on her first day in office Friday. “I love Houston and it just has broke my heart to see how it has been tore apart.”

Burnett comes to the council after the previous mayor, Roger Purcell, resigned while facing a recall attempt. She will serve until October, when a new mayor will be selected after the city council election. She said the atmosphere for Houston city politics has been poisonous, with mean-spirited, personal attacks tossed back and forth online and elsewhere.

Burnett has deep roots in the city. She owned the Houston Lodge for years before she sold it. Her children and grandchildren attended Houston High School. She said she hopes the faction that opposed her predecessor will give her a clean slate to work with.

“Don’t judge me by what you think might have happened with other people,” she said.

If they can do that, she can extend the same courtesy. Burnett said she will have an open-door policy, and hopes anyone who has concerns about the city will come to see her in person rather than attacking her anonymously online.

As for city business, there isn’t much to get accomplished in the four months prior to the next election, but there are some things that need immediate attention.

“Our previous mayor had gotten us a lot of money that we hadn’t had before and we’ve had to repair Hawk Lane for a long, long time,” Burnett said. “I’ve been on [city council] for nine years and I remember vaguely 10 years ago having some work done [on the road].”

So that project is moving forward. Which is good, Burnett said, because the high school is on Hawk Lane and so is a new city fire station. And it’s not the only project to worry about.

“We’ve got a lot of road work to do,” she said.

The city is also working on using grant money to get new equipment for the fire department — things the department has needed for years, Burnett said. The tiny police force has just added a new officer.

Burnett thinks she can be a good mayor and would put to use her experience running a business.

“It’s just like running another business,” she said.

She’s had to put some things on hold to take the job. Her work with Alaska Attachment and Bonding Associates, for one. The group helps foster children and other kids who have trouble connecting with their parents make those bonds and attachments.

Burnett said she has a few more things planned for her work with the organization, but told her boss there isn’t much more she can do, for now.

“I said if I get elected, I would be putting in full time to the city,” Burnett said.

She said there’s a misperception that the mayor just spends a couple of hours a day at city hall. She won’t be that kind of mayor.

“If you do a good job, you’re going to have to be in here for a lot more hours,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.