News : Meet the Candidate: Dixie Meyer

Editor's Note: First Ward council candidate Dixie Meyer was unable to attend the candidate forum due to a work commitment, so we invited her to share information about herself and her thougths on city issues, in her own words, here. Her profile appears below: I am Dixie Meyer, and I am running to represent the 1^st Ward on the City Council. I am a Vinton native. I am a RN. I worked in the OR for 28 years, and am currently in Healthcare IT, working for the last 10 years as a Clinical Analyst. I currently work for ICE Technologies, a Healthcare IT company based in Pella, IA, as a Senior Clinical Application Analyst. I am excited about the iVinton initiative, being someone that works from home via the internet every day. It will be beneficial in maintaining a reliable internet connection. I believe that being progressive will also assist in attracting businesses to Vinton. I love Vinton, and believe that it has such potential for growth. We have a great school system, beautiful parks, bike and hiking trails. The city is clean, and citizens are friendly and welcoming. We have some beautiful, historic homes that I hear comments about from folks that are visiting Vinton. My manager from ICE Technologies was here, and commented about all the beautiful Victorian homes. Vinton offers one of the best healthcare networks for a town this size that I have seen in my travels. We have excellent, competent, caring primary care providers. We have top-notch specialists and surgeons that serve our population. I have personally worked with some of the surgical specialists, and know their competence levels. I have personally utilized the surgical services provided here at Virginia Gay, undergoing a colon resection here 3 years ago, having a port access flushed monthly for almost 2 years, and utilizing the visiting Oncology specialist. Believe me, if I didn't totally trust in the healthcare provided in my professional nursing opinion, I would be going somewhere else. Housing is definitely needed. It is great to see that this seems to be moving forward. I do think that we need to remain mindful of the different income levels that we have in town, and make certain that this is taken into consideration in discussions that the council has regarding taxes. I just heard about the hotel/motel tax a couple of weeks ago. I agree with the need for this. I travel a lot for work, and virtually every city that I have visited in the last six years in this career has a city tax for hotels. I would be quite surprised not to see a city tax on a hotel receipt. I believe that economic development and county development should be supported in partnership with the city government. If we all don't work toward a common goal of attracting tourism and new business to the city, we would be working against each other. This needs to be a common and coordinated effort. The people that work on those efforts are the experts, and I think that the council needs to listen to their efforts and recommendations, and support them in doing their jobs. I did watch the video recording of the candidate forum, which was a great way to review a lot of the issues that Vinton will be facing in the next few years. It appears some of these issues are currently being addressed to some degree, such as the housing and iVinton initiative being addressed and moving forward, and the group working on the future of IBSSS. I do believe that the need to move the fire station needs to be addressed, at least to work towards a long-term solution. There have been sandbagging efforts as the Cedar River has flooded or threatened to flood more times in the last 15 years that I have been back than I ever recall growing up in town. I believe that the IBSSS is a significant issue that needs and deserves a resolution, that it has been the "elephant in the room"� for quite some time now. There is a committee working on this currently, and it will require council support of their recommendation. I do believe that this complex is a part of Vinton history. I went to school and church with the blind students that attended there. It was a school field trip in elementary school. It is a historic site, and I would love to see this maintained. I also understand that this is a huge financial undertaking. I think that we need to hear what the committee that is working on this task has gained in their focus on this and what the viable options are. There was also discussion at the forum about the need for a new recreational facility. The only thing that I would say about this is that I do believe that this is one of the things that families look at when moving to new communities. I would be curious if there if there is any opportunity to work with local businesses to offer wellness offerings to their employees. I don't know if this is currently done, as I don't work for a Vinton business, and I work out at home. There was also discussion regarding the sidewalk and street maintenance, which I think is required as ongoing city maintenance. Thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions as set forth at the candidate forum last week. I am hopeful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Vinton that reside in the 1^st ward. I apologize that I was unable to attend the forum.