Little Wants to See Jal Thrive
By John Earp
This week, we interviewed our second candidate currently in the running for Mayor of Jal, Philip Little, or, as he is more usually called, “Little Philip,” to distinguish him from his father. Little has been a resident of Jal all his life. He will turn 36 in December. He said, “I’ve got two kids, I’ve got a small construction business, and we do, you know, landscaping and mowing, and you know, we do sprinkler work and tree trimming, and I mean, we do all the things for the community. And we’re going to continue to do that, you know, if we get in the office of being mayor, then, you know, I say, but me as a person, we’re going to continue to clean the town up with or without that position, but I would like to see it, you know, with the whole town as a community, not just a select few individuals doing stuff like that.”
When asked what made him want to run for mayor, Little replied, “I’d like to see the community get cleaned up a little more. and over the last year, you know, we’ve cleaned a lot of stuff in town and built a lot of stuff for the residents and there’s sure a lot of people that really need help and there’s a bunch of old properties that need to be cleaned up and vacant lots and old houses that need to be torn down, and I would just like to see the community grow, whether it’s, you know, we clean all the old stuff up and bring new stuff in, or if we get a new, you know, a housing development group, you know, more of a lower income, you know, development group would be cool. You know, some of the houses that are coming here, you know, $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, and that’s not something the community can really afford, you know? And we don’t need to be in the rental business for sure, and that’s how we’re going to get stuck with these houses. Yeah. So, you know, I would just like to see the community grow a little bit.”
Besides housing, Little has concerns about the water situation in Jal. He said, “Well, you know, not to harp on the old water. You know, the water’s been the biggest key for, you know, the last 10 years, but not the harp on old water, but we’ve got to go find a new water source. And there’s some other places that have it and some other entities that could help us get it in some other areas that we could, you know, go obtain water. But we’ve got to go out for new businesses and quit harping on the old business, you know. And there’s some other places that have and some people we could get it from, whether they’re individuals or companies and other areas that, you know, we could go seek water and probably obtain the water, you know the water rights or permits from that area. Like I said, not to harp on old water. I mean, the water has always been the biggest problem for 10 years, you know?”
Little says there is other drinking water that the city could obtain besides the Jal Basin and the Santa Rosa Formation water. He said, “Yeah, there’s some water we could probably obtain. And I’ve been looking, and I don’t know that it could happen, you know, and I don’t want to overstep my boundary, but I know, I would like to for sure help if we could get it, I would like to be, you know, a part of getting it, you know.”
When asked if there are any things the present city mayor and council have been doing that he would like to see changed, Little said, “I think the city council and the mayor, they’re doing a good job, but I think we could be a little more business minded. I think we could do stuff in a more timely manner. I do think a bunch of the business is slow, whether it’s laying water lines, sewer lines, or the street repair and maintenance, I think that’s still, you know, that’s slow. There’s a bunch of fire hydrants that people have been griping about and I’ve heard them gripe about the city council. We haven’t repaired those. And I know it’s time consuming, but I think we need to be more business minded and, you know, and get out there and work, you know, get things done. I think the times are slow, and I really think we need to pick it up.”
When asked about any other things he would like to see done if he were to become mayor, Little said, “I just think we’re in a prime area to have the best business around and the best areas around. I mean, we’re right in the middle of all the good business, and we’re just not growing, you know, just real fast. It’s just a steady growth. We’re just barely getting by, it seems like. And I really think we could bring more businesses and people to the towns.
When asked, “If someone were to ask you, you know, why should I give my vote to you, what would you say to somebody just off the street?” Little replied, “You know, I would tell them just like I told the guy today, you know, I’m 100% here for the people, 100% here for the community, and I would like to see change in the community and grow the community, clean the town up, get people from the outside here and just, you know, just see the town thrive. You know, I would just like to do better for the community.”
When asked to share with the entire community what his heart is for Jal, Little said, “Just to see the community thrive, just to have, you know, a nice place to call home and bring people back that were here that moved away for, you know, whether it was personal reasons or legal reasons or whatever, just to see the community just grow to be the full potential of what it could really be here.”