Avondale mayor surprised by no opposition
No one qualified last week to challenge Avondale Estates incumbent Jonathan Elmore for the mayoral chair, which the 49-year-old architect said “genuinely surprised” him. Elmore easily defeated four other candidates in last March’s special election, but only two of those — Todd Pullen and John Pomberg — return this time around to vie for the city commission.
“The best way to look at it,” Elmore said, “is that it saves the hassle of having to campaign and I can concentrate on the many things we’re working on this fall.”
That includes establishing ad hoc committees for green space and education. Elmore also wants to “develop a new strategic plan” for the city’s Downtown Development Authority, which currently has two vacancies, and may have three by year’s end. He wants to schedule a special work session with Euramex Management giving a public presentation of its development plans for 17 downtown acres.
He added that if the proposed cities of Lavista Hills and Tucker pass voter approval in November, annexation likely becomes a dominant issue again with “everybody staking their claims.”
