Gwendolyn Landrus
Gwendolyn Landrus

To provide the voters of Lemoore with important information about their candidates for Lemoore City Council, The Leader has requested that each of the candidates take a few minutes during their campaigns to answer a few questions about issues pertinent to the city of Lemoore and how they plan to address or highlight those issues.

Why are you running for a seat on the Lemoore City Council? Was or is there a specific issue that angered you, that you questioned, or is it simply a desire to serve your community.

I’m running for Lemoore City Council because I fell in love with this little city when we moved here in 1977.  It broke my heart when we moved in 1996 but said we would be back.  Now that I’m back, it breaks my heart to see that my Little City has changed and downtown has declined to a lot of empty storefronts and really no place to shop, which forces me to go out of town. I want to serve the little community I fell in love with and came home to.

As you know, economic prosperity is always an issue for Lemoore. Based on its size and populations and proximity to Hanford, Visalia, and Fresno (and other communities), it has been difficult to attract retail business. How would you counteract this disability? What would you do to improve Lemoore’s economic climate?

No matter what we do as a community to improve our little city, it is going to take everyone to be involved and bite into the plan.  We need to start with drawing in smaller businesses downtown. At the same time, we need to find something to make people want to come to our little city and spend the day with us and enjoy the small city atmosphere and spend some money here.

Visit Lemoore Voting District Map

Name what you feel is a challenging issue or issues that Lemoore may face in the near future: water, jobs, education, police, fire, taxes, etc.?

Issues facing Lemoore are many. A lot of things will have to be addressed, along with Police, Fire, taxes, and jobs. As a city, we only have so much money to work with, and we want it to cover everything.  We will have to be wise on how and where the money is being spent.  We want to make sure that the money is being spent for the good of our community.

In your opinion, is Lemoore in a positive place right now, or are there issues that need to be addressed that may or may not affect the future of this city?

Lemoore is a great place to live.  It’s small, and the people are friendly.  My only complaint is I have to go to Fresno or Visalia to shop.  If I need to buy a quick gift I have to travel to shop.

What is the first thing you would do to change or improve upon if elected?

I feel we need to get a long-term plan put together to start building back our downtown.  We have steps A, B, C, D, etc. We start with  A  and get it started then move onto the next phase B, C,  D, etc. until all the goals are met.

Do you feel Lemoore is a safe community? Why or why not, or any final thoughts that may not have been asked, but you feel it is an important issue, program, or need?

This city has so much to offer.  We just need to work as a team to protect what we have and learn together how to offer more here so we can all love our little city.