Roy Gordon for Council?

Gordon, 44, said he is running to help everyone in Middletown. He said city politics needs to be changed and that he wants to bring a better voice to the community and fight for people that need help.

He said council needs to be more transparent and concise in what they are doing. Gordon said council members need to be approachable and reachable. They also need to ask the questions people want answers to, he said.

“I am a 35-year resident of the city,” Gordon said. “I have 10 years total of volunteer work of giving back to my community and have voted in almost every election for 15 years. My commitment is to give back more to my community than I receive.”

Gordon said the top three challenges facing Middletown include deteriorating infrastructure, the heroin problem, and the city’s finances.

He said council needs to prioritize and find the money to fix the city’s streets and repair its parks. Gordon said too much money is being spent building new roads and not enough of the city’s budget is being spent on old roads.

On the heroin problem, Gordon said council needs to educate, treat and stop the influx of heroin into the city. He suggests increasing police and fire department staffing to above minimum levels, enforce current laws and find treatment for people.

He said the city needs to plan ahead and look for future fiscal impacts and find other solutions and revenue sources. He said the city needs to bring in companies without costing taxpayers money and stop spending money it doesn’t have

Gordon has been active in the community as a volunteer with Keep Middletown Beautiful for the past eight years and with voter registration efforts for the past two years.