Seneca, Pomona mayor, filed this week for election to the city post in which she’s served the past 2 1/2 years.
“I would just like to continue on the same path,” Seneca said. “I have some projects and goals that have not been reached yet, and I’d like to use the next term to achieve those goals.”
Among those projects, she said, are continuing progress recently made on improving city streets, expanding the Pomona Community Library, 219 Jefferson St., and renovating the parks depot.
“I’d just like to maintain the progress that we’ve already made,” Seneca said, adding she, and others, played a key role in such aesthetic improvements to Pomona as the flower displays lining Franklin Street.
Seneca, who said she has lived in Pomona for more than 12 years, was elected twice to the city council before becoming mayor in 2010. She was tapped for the position after former Mayor Joann Hancock was recalled in an election.
Seneca’s time as mayor has come with its ups and downs, she said.
“It’s been a challenge and a joy at the same time,” she said.
Conversations with constituents also have taught Seneca about one the community’s chief concerns, Seneca said: the cost of utilities. The city is doing all it can to keep costs down, she said. Not only is it a concern for her as an elected official, but also for her as a utility consumer, she said. She too understands the plight of high utilities, she said, and cannot detach herself from other such issues that impact all residents.
“It deeply concerns me, the high cost of utilities,” she said. “And the street repairs. I think we’ve made incredible progress, however, we’re working with very limited funds.”
As of Monday afternoon, no challengers had filed for the Pomona mayor position. The filing deadline is noon Jan. 22 at the Franklin County Clerk’s Office, 315 S. Main St., Ottawa.
The general election is set for April 2.