{"id":40409,"date":"2017-06-29T13:51:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T19:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=40409"},"modified":"2017-06-29T14:42:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T20:42:25","slug":"robyn-tannehill-sworn-into-office-as-mayor-of-oxford-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/robyn-tannehill-sworn-into-office-as-mayor-of-oxford-mississippi\/","title":{"rendered":"Robyn Tannehill Sworn into Office as Mayor of Oxford, Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ward 2 Alderman Robyn Tannehill<\/strong> was sworn in Thursday morning, June 29, as the new Mayor of Oxford, Mississippi<\/strong>. We spoke with her recently regarding what issues she plans to tackle first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was completely shocked when 5 o\u2019clock rolled around and no one had thrown their name in the hat,\u201d said Mayor Tannehill. \u201cI do think there\u2019s something to the fact that it is a ginormous job and most people thought better of it\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The concern over responsible growth has steadily become more prominent in Oxford, and this year\u2019s election was directed by those concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a daunting task for sure, but it\u2019s also an exciting task,\u201d said Tannehill. \u201cOxford is in a really critical time. I\u2019ve said numerous times that it\u2019s like Oxford is at its adolescence and we\u2019re having to decide what to be when we grow up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Responsibly growing as a town has numerous challenges that were in the spotlight throughout the election. Tannehill plans to tackle these concerns head on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at annexation and have actually been in a meeting about that today,\u201d said Tannehill. \u201cWe\u2019re studying lots of different areas and seeing what we can afford to annex.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Area studies are currently focused near existing road extensions for West Oxford Loop Extended<\/strong>, which will connect near FNC Park<\/strong>, and Sisk Avenue Extended<\/strong>, which will connect Sisk Avenue to Highway 7<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose two areas, I think it gives people the chance to be able to control the development of those roadways that will go through our communities.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Through annexation, Tannehill hopes to also combat the affordable housing issue. As Oxford absorbs undeveloped land, that opens the opportunity to create \u201cWorkforce housing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say affordable housing, some picture subsidized public housing, different ranges of home, but I think we could use more housing in all of those categories,\u201d said Tannehill. \u201cWorkforce housing refers to those that work in Oxford and make our town go round. It encompasses a lot of jobs that don\u2019t allow folks to afford real estate in Oxford. We\u2019re hoping that by annexing some undeveloped land that it makes more of an opportunity for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Congestion, especially on main roads such as Jackson Ave.<\/strong> and University Ave.<\/strong>, in Oxford has come right along with the population boom. Tannehill plans to address this as soon as she\u2019s in office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we could start over, but since we can\u2019t we\u2019re putting together a transportation plan as soon as I\u2019m in office,\u201d said Tannehill. \u201cWhat consultants have told us is that when you can\u2019t move the road themselves, you move where the traffic is going.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tannehill has plans to review city ordinances and zonings to allow for smaller neighborhood stores to come in to established residential areas. These will, in theory, reduce congestion on main roads by allowing residents and tourists to drive a mile down the road rather than have to dive into traffic on Highway 6, Jackson Ave., and University Ave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balancing the needs of residents while utilizing the tourism demand to grow as city is a tall order, but Mayor-Elect Tannehill is ready for that job.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a huge, challenging task,\u201d said Tannehill. \u201cBut it\u2019s also very exciting.\u201d\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Ward 2 Alderman Robyn Tannehill was sworn in Thursday morning, June 29, as the new Mayor of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":40410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10619,1399,5,642,10618,4,1448,10617,3,753],"class_list":["post-40409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-government","tag-elect","tag-mayor","tag-mississippi","tag-ms","tag-office","tag-oxford","tag-robyn-tannehill","tag-sworn","tag-the-local-voice","tag-tlv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/2017-06-22-mayor.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}