From construction to politics, City of Sturgis appoints local man as Mayor

STURGIS, Ky. (WFIE) - Construction to politics: a jump brand-new Sturgis Mayor Billy Adams knows well as he takes the reigns of his own city, trying to bring it back from the brink of financial ruin.

“If you’d asked me a month ago, would I be standing there, doing this? I’d have said, ‘absolutely not,’” says Adams.

Big shoes to fill as Adams and his new City Council shoulder the many needs of their home.

“Obviously we’ve got some immediate decisions to make,” says Adams, “I mean, obviously, we need some money.”

As we reported, the former administration stepped down following a meeting where Sturgis’ financial peril was revealed.

[Previous Story: Financial ruin forces entire Sturgis City Council to resign]

Since then, a new city council has formed, with Adams at the helm.

“I had several conversations with Adam and our Magistrate Jim Ricketts just about what was going on. They reached out and said ‘with this, would you be willing to be appointed to this and take over?’ recalls Adams, “we were gone on vacation, and I had to take a breath or two and I told Jim, I said, ‘yes I will,’ and so here we go.”

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Adams says he knows the same sentiment rings true of his small town.

However, he says he and the council are committed to taking things one day at a time, and doing what’s necessary, no matter how difficult, to keep the city afloat.

Local residents like Sharon Winders say they’re excited to see some fresh faces.

“It is exciting cause the guy worked on our house. He’s done things to our house and now he’s gonna be running our city. I mean what more could you ask for?” says Winders, “sometimes you have to go through bad things to get to good things. So we’re going to get to our good things now.”

Adams says notices should be going out soon for a meeting that he wants to hold Monday night, September 18, at the Senior Center at 6:00 P.M.

He says they’d like to form an official agenda so everybody knows not only what’s at stake, but what the plan is moving forward to bring this city back

We were told previously officials are working on getting grants to help meet the immediate needs of the city.

They say that includes funding for a much-needed, updated sewage plant.

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