ANDREWS, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – While you stroll around town and see changes to your community, you might not realize the work that goes on behind the scenes from your local government, especially from your city Mayor.
ABC Big 2 took a walk in the shoes of Andrews Mayor, Flora Braly to see what it’s like to direct a community, and even more specifically, get a look at what it means to dedicate your time to your town and keep your community members happy.
“Representing Andrews is easy and any chance that I get to tell you how great Andrews is, I’m there!” smiled Mayor Braly.
Braly has been representing her community for a little more than two decades, “I’ve been mayor for almost ten years, unopposed.”
First as a council woman for 11 years, and now in her tenth year as the city’s very first female mayor.
“I felt like I needed to do it, since we never had a woman mayor, and I thought, ‘It’s a great opportunity, for the women and for the little girls, to aspire to be mayor of the city of Andrews.’”
She said breaking those barriers, was motivation from the beginning.
“I think, first it was very motivational, because it was like breaking a ceiling, a glass ceiling and doing it for other young women and other little girls. Was there a challenge? Yes. Was it difficult? Yes, getting there. But the community made it happen. So, it’s just been a great journey, I feel really blessed that I got the opportunity to serve in this great community.”
She thought after her time on City Council, it was finally time to make a bigger impact on the community she has loved throughout her life.
“First of all it’s a quality community, my job is here, with Permian Regional Medical Center, that’s my full time job here, my Mayor job is volunteer. I just have to balance that out and it works well. Andrews is a good place to work and play and you know, have your friends and family here. I just enjoy my life here, it’s a small, quaint town, small enough that you know, most everybody, most everybody knows me,” she smiled. “It’s just great to able to sit with them and say, ‘Hey, okay you have a problem! Let me see what I can do to help.’ That’s the mentality, and I think that’s really important for the mayor to be open to the citizens.”
She said one thing many need to keep in mind, is she does this job because she loves it.
“Well, the fact that I’m a volunteer mayor and my job is here at the hospital, that’s what is my livelihood. I don’t think a lot of people know that.“
Which sometimes can force her to become a master juggler.
“It wasn’t hard at all to balance out, I think like I say, doing my job here is priority and so is representing this community that I love, it’s also a priority, and so I would hope that the citizens know, they have access to me. It gets hard a little bit sometimes, but I think knowing, now that I’m a seasoned mayor, knowing how to juggle it, is the main thing and it usually works.”
Braly takes her role as Mayor very seriously and has completed many projects throughout the community, some of which you can see here:
“We got so much done. So, it’s been all of those things so looking back, I see that, we have made Andrews better, and that’s been really good, it feels really good. We still have a lot to complete, we have a lot on our plate. I mean it’s really busy, but it’s a good busy, and we’ve accomplished a lot.”
But said she couldn’t do it without City officials and staff and especially community members.
“I feel like if you don’t come together for the better of your community, you’re not gonna make it happen as soon and as best as you can. It takes all of us to work together to make things happen and I really believe in partnering with our community and other entities, it’s really important.”
While she has a full time job at Permian Regional Medical Center, she is always open to hear from her constituents.
“You’re always welcome, you know, my door is always open, so, I think it’s really important for the mayor to be able to be out in the public and for people to know that you care and so, if they want me there, I’m there!”
She said she doesn’t know quite yet when she’ll step down from her seat as mayor, but when she does, she has some advice for anyone who’s next.
“I say that if you have the heart and the will, to serve the people, and the community, and you want to make it better, then it’s always something that you can learn. I never thought that I would be on the council or the mayor, but I think that anyone who has the heart and the will and wants to serv, you can make it happen.”
Because even she herself had some doubts at first.
“Even though I was afraid or scared to go as mayor and try to be elected, yeah I was scared because I thought, ‘there’s never been a woman.’ But I just didn’t give into that fear, I thought, ‘Okay Lord! Here I am I’m gonna try it. I’m a council, I bring 11 years and I’m gonna go at it hard and I’m gonna do the best that I can to represent Andrews.’”
