Mayor needs now to lead

Having served for almost six months as Waynesboro mayor, a distinction most parts ceremonial, Tim Williams has distinguished himself in ways that his friends wish he had not.  Williams has hewed right on hiring freezes and spending, but has proposed pay raises for himself and the council and has declined so far to back lowering real estate taxes to offset the cost of increased property values under reassessment. He has, in the process, chagrined his friends as well as some foes.

Under the ceremonial umbrella that covers most of his title, Williams on Wednesday also shrugged aside an opportunity to lead by way of calm voice as word spread that Invista would lay off 210 workers and idle nylon operations at the company’s iconic plant on the South River. Asked for a response, Williams declined to comment. Vice Mayor Frank Lucente stepped to the fore, expressing hope that the move would be rendered temporary by a wakening of the flat carpet market next year. Other council members chimed in.

Waynesboro wants for many things, most of them internal. We frequently have opined in this space on the city’s amenities and promise. Our conviction is that on the subject of things external, Waynesboro is well positioned to emerge as the pearl of the central Shenandoah Valley.

This town is known as the River City, though the city inexplicably ignores the river that forms the appellation and rims an edge of downtown. Many communities covet a river and the development dreams it engenders. Waynesboro almost disdains the South. Heavily traveled scenic routes wind to the city’s doorstep, a national park and national forests and historic landmarks surround it. All of this and more give Waynesboro reason to aspire for more even in difficult days like those of the present.

But city leaders, so-called, persist in piddling. Among the latest squabbles is one between Lucente and his foes on the council over whether to install signal devices that will allow emergency responders to change traffic lights from red to green so that they can zip through intersections on their way to fires and accidents. Lucente wants the devices; others aren’t so sure. What of advancing the city’s economy, fraying now in the wake of growing uncertainty over the future of Invista? Silence.

Here is where a mayor might rise to shed pomp amid the circumstances. Myopia maintained with care over the course of decades has kept city officials’ eyes glued to minutiae while economic forces have evolved and advanced far beyond the days of General Electric and DuPont. A leader might lift gazes higher and extend them beyond the here and now.

A mayor of a different kind of fiber than they make at Invista might ease the trembling that company’s wobbling engenders by pushing and trumpeting the push for new businesses and jobs that pay the kind of wages that can support families the way the factory on the South River has for almost 80 years.

Such a mayor would voice the city’s support and hope for Invista and its workers and would assure his constituents that new opportunities were being forged. Such a mayor would pursue businesses in all sectors, building a plan of tax incentives that would make this city, located near two major interstates, irresistible to companies looking for places to start up or expand.

Perhaps when days brighten, as we are hopeful they will, such a mayor might even point to his record and suggest a raise for a position that offers little thanks and less pay. And the people, and we with them, might even respond: Well-earned and well done.

Having been in office at this writing for just 163 days with another local election more than 17 months away, Williams has ample time to become the kind of mayor his city needs and deserves. We encourage him to make haste in doing this for the good of a town that cries out for a leader with vision beyond tomorrow.