Dana Merkur Joins X101 For An Interview On His Run For Ward 1 in City

Mike Eves: [00:00:00] It’s X 1 0 1, always classic. I am Mike Eves here in the studio with us, Dana Merkur and Dana, a local retired businessman. And, he’s running for Ward one in the city of Corland. And, Dana here. Welcome into the studio. Thank you for your time here today. Yeah, no thanks. Thanks for coming on in. We’ve got some questions here for you, right, right off the.

Why did you choose to run here? I know you were coming into, a little bit of midterm coming in, here in the last, year or so, or two, but why did you choose to, to officially run and, and to put your name on the ballot? Propublican party approached me

Dana Merkur: in June Okay. To fill a seat that was now vacant in the city.

I thought it was a great opportunity. My wife thought it would be a perfect position for me. Mm-hmm. I’ve lived here my entire life. And ran a business 42 years. Mm-hmm. I felt it was time to give back to the city that gave

Mike Eves: me so much over the years. Awesome. Dana, what’s your biggest priority? Day one in, in office?

A hot topic right now is our homeless people. Okay.

Dana Merkur: There’s no one right answer to approach this subject. Mm-hmm. But it is a very sensitive [00:01:00] subject, so I do think in the next coming year we have to come up with a little bit more solutions. Than where we’re at now. I think we’re on the right track with a new home that’s gonna be opened up for them in the city.

Mm-hmm. The mental health will be nearby. Location wise, we’re heading in the right direction. But again, it needs to be more information to them and to the people in the city that don’t understand. Their

Mike Eves: situation. Right, right. That’s right. And then, so that kind of leads us into the next issue too.

What are some of the issues you see fe facing, ward one in the city? Obviously you said homelessness or what are some of the other issues you’ve seen kind of come up?

Dana Merkur: Ward one, I think our big issue and concern is Parker School. Since it went vacant, everybody wanted to know what was gonna happen to it.

Well, fortunately it’s in a good position right now. The city, gave it back, and rent to the school district who needed

Mike Eves: that for renovations. Exactly. And that’s for, I think, what is that, a three year deal? So we’ve got a or some, something like that, I think. Yeah. And.

Dana Merkur: Steve Franco made a very generous donation to, upgrade the gym.

The [00:02:00] playground? Yes. And we don’t wanna see it go into low income housing in the future. The city can use this, whether it’s a school district or the city uses it for offices. There’s so many other uses, and as long as that’s protected, that would be my number one issue as an alderman.

Mike Eves: Okay. Awesome. And our last question here, Dana, this morning.

What can you bring to the table as opposed to your, to your opponent?

Dana Merkur: I don’t know. My opponent, I’ve only met the man once. Okay. Very cordial. I don’t know his attributes to mine, but I’m a great listener. I was a photographer in a portrait studio. Every day I listened and talk to people. And I think I have a, a knack for doing that. So if people approach me, I can listen. Solve their issues. Since I’ve been an alderman, I’ve already done that to several constituents that have reached out to me with problems in the city. It’s amazing what you can get accomplished, just talking to someone face to face.

Mike Eves: Yep. That’s right. Everyone has different experiences. Dana, before we go, any last, anything else you want to say here in this quick interview other than obviously we want to get out and vote and stuff too, [00:03:00]

Dana Merkur: I think that right now that citizens of Cortland should be very proud of their city.

It’s never looked so nice. Main Street, Groton Nav, Clinton Nav. It should be proud of what, how much we’ve achieved in the last two years, and I think that’s what people should be more of a positive aspect

Mike Eves: instead of always hearing negativity. Awesome. Dana Merkur, he’s running for Ward one Alderman in the, the city of Cortland.

And Dana, thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.