Community Impact Newspaper reached out to the mayors of Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake at the start of the new year. The mayors each offered insight on opportunities for their cities and what they are looking forward to in 2019. Southlake Mayor Laura Hill's responses are below.

Background


Hill said she knew the first time she went to a Southlake City Council meeting in 1996 that she wanted to be mayor someday. Hill said she actually surprised herself that she did not run sooner. She attributed this to the fact that she was raising her children at the time, and she said she wanted to devote the time it would take to do a great job. She said she loves everything about the job of being mayor and that it is the perfect fit for her personality and skill set.

Top goals for 2019 include:


• Opening the Champions Club at the Marq Southlake
• Creating meaningful change in the city with the help of the Mayor’s Alliance for Unity and Culture and Southlake’s residents

Opportunities for Southlake:


“We are excited that our tradition of rich outdoor programming at the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve will continue into the future starting with our youngest outdoor lovers being able to take advantage of the Cross Timbers Forest Preschool program, to families taking long hikes on the many trails found within the Preserve’s 800-plus acres. We are blessed to have this beautiful treasure right here in Southlake.”

What else would you like Southlake residents to know?


"In Southlake [the] mayor and council is a volunteer, unpaid position. It’s important that citizens know that the city is run by our City Manager Shana Yelverton and her staff. We have a City Manager-Council form of Government. So the mayor does not ‘run’ the city."