Firefighter Williams looking to serve

GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
Bryan Williams

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Bryan Williams hopes his background in emergency services and infrastructure will be a winning combination in a run for Maryville City Council.

Born and raised in Nodaway County, Williams has lived in Maryville for more than a decade now since starting at Northwest Missouri State University in 2007.

And it didn’t take long for him to develop a passion for the community, and a passion for service.

A former water maintenance worker with the Maryville Public Works Department and a 911 dispatcher at Maryville Public Safety, Williams has been a volunteer firefighter with the Maryville Fire Department since 2011. Currently he’s a firefighter and paramedic in St. Joseph, as well as a part-time paramedic with the Nodaway County Ambulance District.

His experiences in those fields shaped his vision of the community he’d like to have a hand in building.

“With my background in infrastructure, that really is gonna be my primary goal, is kind of refocus the city’s priorities back to getting our water and sewer system repaired and in better condition,” Williams told The Forum. “Focusing mainly on the collection for sewer and the distribution for water mains.”

In particular, Williams said he’d like to see more resources put into fixing underlying issues that can speed up deterioration of roads, some of which, he said, can be caused by erosion underneath the surface stemming from sewer and water mains.

“So I’d like to refocus our budget to where maybe we address some of those issues before we do some of the other things,” he said. “One of the common themes … I felt when I was an employee of the city was that there were certain things that were priorities, and there were certain things that weren’t. And if it wasn’t a priority, it was shoved to the side. And it always felt that our infrastructure was never really that high of a priority.”

A city employee for nearly 10 years, Williams said he often thought about what he could do if he wasn’t anymore.

“I got to kind of see how things were done, and I didn’t always agree with how things were prioritized,” he said. “So, over that 10-year period, I kinda said, you know, if I’m ever not employed by the city anymore, I wanna run, I wanna see if I can help do a little bit better.”

A good City Council member, Williams said, would be transparent, honest and easy to get a hold of.

“Someone that would listen to the voices of constituents,” he said. “I mean, they’re all at-large positions so, wherever you live inside city limits, if you have a problem, you should be able to come to one of your council members and feel heard once you’re done speaking with them.”

If elected, Williams singled out the potential development of a new water treatment facility as the biggest hurdle facing the city over the next three years.

But for new issues that come up, Williams said he’ll approach them methodically.

“So with my background in emergency services, we prioritize things differently than other people,” he said. “There’s a motto, ‘do the most good for the most number of people.’ That’s what you’d use for like a multi-casualty event. But also for any other operation, we’d always kind of focus on life safety first, then we’d move on to conservation of property, and we also were concerned about the environment ….

“So, anytime I make a decision, I kind of fall back to that. And anytime I’m making priorities, is it something that’s gonna affect someone’s life? Something that affects someone’s property? So that’s how I’ll be making decisions.”

Williams added that he’s been serving the Maryville community for a decade, and is ready to step up to a new level of service.

“I’m really passionate about this community,” he said. “Like I said, I’ve worked as a city employee, I’ve worked for the community, for the last 10 years I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for the community, I work part-time at the ambulance district, so I mean, taking care of this community is something I’ve been doing for the last 10 years — it’s something that I’m passionate about.”