In preparing with my family to make the decision to run for reelection, I reflected on why I want to continue leading the city of Greenfield as your mayor. In the end it wasn’t a hard decision to make. We have a great deal more to do to achieve the success for Greenfield that I envisioned on Jan. 2, 2020 and that I was excited to put into action.

I could not have brought us this far if it weren’t for you, the citizens of Greenfield, who helped us get through the worst of the pandemic with your volunteer efforts and sheer grit, who have cheered on the progress we’ve made on our library and fire station, who have embraced new ways of enjoying our wonderful downtown and our common.

And, frankly, who don’t mind giving me your opinions on areas where we need improvement, where I could govern better. That’s how I grow as a mayor, and how we grow as a community. Success is measured by what we accomplish together, not by what we seek to tear down.

Now, let’s look at what we have been able to accomplish during these last four years that I have been your mayor. In spite of the pandemic, I have a record I am proud of.

We now have a new skate park that is enjoyed by skaters of all ages. Keeping our young people engaged and active in building our community is important to me. We have expanded zoning for manufacturing, which will bring us living wage jobs while increasing our future tax base. We will soon have our new state-of-the-art fire station along with important infrastructure upgrades to our Police Department. Without strong public safety and health operations in Greenfield, we have a less livable, less safe community.

We are creating more than 100 new housing units in our downtown with the redevelopment of Wilson’s and the Wells Street shelter; both are projects that are just getting underway and that will require a lot of work. Lack of affordable housing for all in Greenfield is one of the hardest problems to overcome, but I work daily with both volunteers and professionals in the field to find ways to ensure that we can keep people in their homes and find shelter for those who don’t have it.

How did all those things get done to make our city better? Achieving even small successes is built on collaboration, cooperation, and compromise. Every effort comes with sincere people who have important perspectives in finding a solution along with constituencies who want results.

As one example, working with the citizen-led building committees to get our library and fire station built is some of the most rewarding and enlightening work that I have done. Simply sitting in on a public forum and listening to others talk about what can be done with the city property on Hope Street after the temporary fire station is gone tells me about problems the neighbors need solved right away, along with their ideas about how to make their part of Greenfield a better place to live.

In a new four-year term, I will continue to use the three C’s — collaboration, cooperation and compromise — to focus on expanding our tax base, maintaining fiscal sustainability, addressing our housing needs, and ensuring the city’s safety. To help us resolve the perennial argument of how to equitably fund both city and school operations, I will create a Mayor’s Education Task Force composed of school administrators, myself and members of the School Committee, City Council, school and city financial officers, teachers and parents to discuss overall city budgeting and make recommendations as to how we will sustainably fund our schools and our city departments for the next decade without overburdening the tax payers.

In order to continue making Greenfield an even better city than it is now, I need your help. I’m asking for your vote on Nov. 7. Let’s get to work!

Roxann Wedegartner is the mayor of Greenfield.