A day in the life of a small town mayor

“You see different things every day, and most everybody in Union—I’ve been knowing them all my life. I have some good days as mayors, and then a lot of times you have a lot of problems.” -Wayne Welch, mayor

Mayor Wayne Welch of Union, Mississippi served on the board for 24 years and is currently in his 9th year of being mayor.

“Overall, we just have a good community. Like I said, we just have a lot of senior citizens, and we have one of the best school systems in the state. We have younger people moving in that want to be a part of our school system, and we’re probably number 5 or 6 in the state overall.” -Welch

Home of the yellow jackets, the Union Public School District, which has been around for decades, strives to cultivate life-long learners that will compete in an ever-changing global society.

Now Union is only a town of about 2,000 people, and what most might know is that in the 2015/2016 school year, Union Elementary based on their test scores, were number one in the entire state.”

While the school system is blossoming, there’s one aspect in Union that is, well, crumbling at times. Mayor Welch claims they have been trying to get CDBG grants every year to update their infrastructure but don’t always get them.

“We have a leak once or twice a week anyways. Our infrastructure is so bad. It’s 40 or 50 years old. Stuff starts crumbling and breaking down and we’re just having a lot of problems with it.” -Welch

And while there might be problems with infrastructure, there is rarely a problem with crime.

“It’s an easy job. I mean, sometimes it’s not. The people are good here. It’s a good community. They get along with us, and we get along with them. Every now and then we get a few that want to get a little crazy.” -Timothy Munn, patrolman

Munn has been a patrolman for Union for 15 years, and, like the mayor, loves the community.