By William Smith
Hometown candidates like to wear their origin like a badge of pride.
Mayor and city councilman Jon Billups wears his like a tattoo. His family name was synonymous with a long-running automotive service in Burlington. Billups himself is often engaged in conversations with constituents, either answering questions via e-mail or explaining city policy on a Facebook comment thread.
“Because I’ve been more visible than most, I get more grief than most. But I’m willing to take that. More often than not, people just don’t have the information they need,” he said.
Billlups said whether he’s mayor or not, he’ll still be easy to find during his waking hours. He has nothing to hide.
“I take pride in my first term as mayor,” he said.
From running a Burlington skateboard shop as a youth to working two jobs during his tenure as mayor – one at Notre Dame, another at Bluff Harbor Marina – Billups likes to keep moving.
He believes that’s exactly what the downtown redevelopment project will do — keep Burlington moving.
“In the end, it will be transformative,” he said.
Billups said their job as council is to facilitate the project as smoothly as possible. He pointed out the TIGER grant money brought into Burlington is the equivalent of citizens having their tax money returned to them.
“If you look at downtown, our sidewalks are in bad shape. We have a lot of residents downtown, and our goal is to make it more livable, more traffic friendly, walking friendly, and better lit at night so you feel safe,” he said.
Aside from the TIGER project, Billups has quite a few more ongoing projects he would like to see through. That includes reopening Cascade Bridge, which is on the city’s five year plan.
Billups said his reign as mayor has strengthened Burlington’s relationship with neighboring communities.
“I’ve worked hard on building relationships. For a long time, it seemed like Burlington and West Burlington were adversarial,” he said.
Billups acknowledged the next couple of years are going to be uncomfortable due to all the construction projects. Businesses along Jefferson Street will have limited access.
He wants to steer the city through the worst of the potential problems, and he wants to get to the other side.
“It’s going to be fantastic. And I’m glad to be a part of it,” he said.
Editor’s note: This is part five of a six-part series profiling the city council candidates. There are six candidates vying for three open seats. In Burlington, all city council seats are at-large, meaning anyone from anywhere in the city may run for a seat on city council. The council election is Nov. 2.