Letter to the editor: Thanks to Freeport mayor Swartz for love and dedication

My family and I would like to give thanks to Freeport mayor James Swartz Jr. for his decades of dedication and love to Freeport, the most friendly, well maintained, financially responsible and, most important, safest place to live in the entire AK Valley (“Freeport Mayor James Swartz Jr. resigns: ‘It’s time to get out,’” June 6, TribLIVE).

I have a newspaper picture of him, with two others as teens and junior firemen in their fire gear, in a rowboat on the lower end of Second Street, helping flood victims during one of many floods we had years ago. During Desert Storm, he helped to have the “We Support Our Local Troops” sign made, have American flags flown from the parking meters each day and organize our big veterans parade.

Swartz helped erect the sign for Freeport High School’s girls volleyball team’s state championship win. I have seen him planting and weeding flowers around the borough and laying many of the memorial bricks down at the war monument on Riverside Drive.

Six years ago, both his family and ours lost family members. I will never forget the love and comforting words he and his siblings gave to me. They are just regular, down-to-earth people.

Good luck, Jim, and to our future new mayor and our council.

Sandy Powell

Freeport