Wendy’s Words - Thank You James Beaton!
3 min readFormer Mayor of Gillett, James Beaton.
This morning, I was disheartened to see a post on Facebook that James Beaton, Mayor of the City of Gillett, was pressured into resigning from his position. The reason the City Council had officially given was that he no longer resided in the city of Gillett. LESS THAN a month ago, James lost his residence and his job when his business partner sold the funeral home they operated without James’s knowledge. In the post James put on Facebook, he said the City Council wasn’t willing to work with him. When I recall other incidents where James had problems with City Council, I believe him. One example of this was the fact that at one time, the mayor was only given a key to the front door at City Hall after an hour of discussion at a closed meeting (See photo below for notes on that meeting). Or view here.
When I agreed to take on the role of Secretary for the Gillett Business Association, James was quick to take me under his wing in his position as GBA President. I have a timid streak to my personality that was a lot worse in my younger years. Because of this, when James asked me for my help on events like The Roy Hubbard Truck Show, The Diamond Jubilee, and Homecoming Events, I was taken aback. What could I possibly contribute to things like those? It turns out that being called upon to work with James on those committees was one of the best things to happen to me. I learned a lot about myself (it turns out I do have something to contribute) when I worked with James, and I will be forever grateful for the faith he had in me.
(October 4, 2019 Facebook post from Former Mayor)
To the City Council members that read this entry, I hope you never find yourself abruptly losing your home like James did-that really can happen to anyone. People lose their homes under other circumstances-like fire, weather damage, among other reasons. If home loss happened to any of you, you couldn’t call yourself a resident of the city. I am sure you would try and find a way to get a place back in the community as quickly as possible, and would hope for some understanding from your colleagues as you try and make that happen. He only lost his home three weeks ago-how much chance did you give James to rectify his circumstances?
A City Council is supposed to have its community’s interests at heart. Instead of showing compassion and working to keep an asset like James here to help Gillett continue to grow, it appears you saw an opportunity to do away with an individual that posed a threat to ‘the way things have always been done’. I believe that’s called kicking a man when he’s down, and for that I say shame on you all!
Moving forward can be done in a place like Gillett-James proved it to us! To whoever becomes our next mayor, I hope you have taken note of what James has accomplished, and you don’t let his achievements be for nothing!! Those who supported James Beaton are worried that his departure will lead to Gillett returning to its old ways-empty store fronts, no progress, the retirement community mentality. I worry about these things too, but I don’t feel it has to be that way. I do not reside in the City of Gillett, but you can bet if I did, I would put my money where my mouth is and run for office.
James, thank you for all you have done for Gillett. You were more than a mayor, you have become a great friend, and I will miss you. God bless you on your new undertakings!
I believe the state statutes state that anyone holding office in a municipality must reside in said municipality and apparently James does not reside in Gillett. The council was within it’s means to do what they did by upholding the law. Wendy, I would think that you would realize that there are two sides to every story. So you only know one side to the story as to why the funeral home was sold and he was evicted. Don’t come to judge too quickly!
I was a part of Gillett culture in younger years. To me, it represented the rural farm way of life and it was satisfying. That was then. In the 21st century, change is inevitably necessary. Any man or woman who can come into a rural community and in their role as leader advocate for change for the good of all should be esteemed with praise and given full support of its members. Am I wrong to say these closed minded city councilmen are only resistant to changes out of Ignorance? Embrace change. Wake up! Come out of the darkness.