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Chris Bivens is seeking re-election to his seat on City Council, Ward 2, that he has held for 12 years.

“I have experience, dedication, involvement with everything that the city does,” Bivens said. “I try to make every issue with every citizen – if there’s something that bothers them, I try to make that my concern. I handle each one individually, I take it to the proper people.”

Bivens credits background work for his success on the council.

“I listen to people,” he said. “If you’ve got an issue I’ll research it. If I have to go on site, to see what it is I’ll take it back to the city, we’ll discuss it. You may not always get your way, but I will do that. I’ll do the leg work.”

As Morristown continues to grow, its government leadership must adapt according to Bivens.

“There are going to be changes,” he said, “Regardless of who’s in there or what year it is and what day of the week it is there are going to be changes …

“We need to address transportation. And there needs to be involvement with the community: I think we need more input from every citizen to show up and tell us what they are thinking. You can reach us by phone or you can show up to a meeting.

Bivens feels that Council’s decision to bring back its Listening Roundtables was a good one.

“Round table discussions – that’s where the public can come and talk and say what they what they want to say and we’ll intermingle … It’s not a very complicated thing to do. Without the public’s input, we can’t make this happen.”

Teamwork on the Council is crucial, according to Bivens.

“I’m one of seven members on this council. You have to build your case with people. One vote will not get you across town. I sold the deal with the entire council about the possibility of lien rights on this property where these people are not taking care of their yards, letting them grow up, just walking off and forgetting them.

“Guess what, I sold six other people on this and it happened. The insurance deal (for city employees) – we didn’t think we had the money to do it and we were trying to figure out how we’d do it, and we made it happen. Videotaping – I’m not quite as proud of that one as some other ones that we’ve done. We went out and got bids on it …. We’re not doing that for particular individuals, we’re doing that for people who don’t have the ability to be at the meetings. I think we owe every citizen that; to show it on a tape delay, whatever . . . I’m saying it’s the right thing to do, it’s 2023.

“All this stuff takes time, it takes patience and it takes a big sense of humor, and I’ve got every one of those,” Bivens said.

Bivens feels the city needs to finish current projects before taking on any more.

“The next large civic project the city should consider: a Performing Arts Center, that’s the future. We’re not ready for it now, we don’t have the funds I think right now to do it; we don’t need to vote in a tax increase to fund it.

“I feel like we need to complete what we started: being the Landing, Fulton Hill Park, to where it’s fully operational to its utmost potential for the current population and also the future population which is growing daily. The public works building is new; we gave the TCAT center the land for their development when we moved the public works facility. We have moved the Humane Society to a new location instead of with the public works, and we’ve renovated the city hall which was not inexpensive. We’ve provided a water line to downtown Morristown; that’s for the growth of the downtown and future renovations. We’ve done the Farmers Market and the Downtown Green.

“I think we’ve got our feet in enough right now until we get some of these things off the ground,” he said.

Bivens said he will continue his working approach to his seat on the Council.

“I’ve been elected, not appointed, to City Council. I’m a good listener. I’ve been doing this for 12 years. I get out and talk to people. I go see what the situations are, the pros and cons. I go see what the guidelines are through the planning and the codes department and I made decisions on my research. My number one research that I did for the city and brought to the council for their approval was: we went out and researched the delinquent properties that never mowed, that we had to mow … we found out that we could charge this back to whoever the property owner was. I did a lot of research on that and it worked. The next thing I done – the administration come to the council looking for a change in the budget to cover the healthcare costs for the employees. I researched this and I also found out during this time, through much work and much hardship … that there was money in the budget to cover this.

“I’m the one that introduced that we do the videotaping of the city council meetings. I think we’re way behind time by not doing that. The people that’s not eligible to attend could watch it on TV, tape, whatever. They’ll have the ability to watch.

“I contributed ideas to the Council for their consideration and that’s three things that I have presented that they agree with,” he said.

Transportation and infrastructure are key to the city serving its citizens, according to Bivens.

“If you’re going from West to East, 11-E – it used to just be on Friday, but now it’s every day of the week – you can not get West to East in a timely fashion unless you take Route 160. We’d recommend that.

“In the future, long-term planning, I can see that we will have to put a third route into Morristown and out of Morristown.

“The original planning years ago was Veterans Parkway and I don’t know that will develop or what not but there are grants to make this happen. Another big issue that we’re dealing with … we’ve still got to provide water, sewer, transportation to everybody in the city. To do that, we have to grow with the growth of the community and that’s a big step to do.

“We’ve got to prioritize our long-range planning and we need to that pretty quick,” he said.