.jpg)
Video produced by Multimedia Editor Serafina Frederick / Headline Surfer speaks with Oak Hill Mayor Douglas Gibson for the 24/7 Internet newspaper's online newsmaker show, 'The Sunday Conversation.'
OAK HILL -- As the December calendar winds down, newly-elected Mayor Douglas Gibson sees a brighter future for the county's smallest city.
The 69-year-old Gibson, a retired state trooper, sees his overwhelming victory in the Nov. 6 general election as a mandate from the citizens that he was justified in leading the effort in August 2011 to dissove the troubled police force led by a chief with a drug-addicted past.
"The underlying issues became really critical because of creating an unsafe environment for the officers to work," Gibson said, giving credit to Headline Surfer for its nearly two-year investigative reports, "Oak Hill Cops: Cocaine, Corruption and Chaos."
A story from that series, "Ex-Oak Hill Mayor: Embattled Police Chief Diane Young not only snorted coke and smoked pot, but also popped ludes," published May 6, 2011, garnered Headline Surfer an award for "public safety reporting in the Florida Press Club's 2012 contest for excellence in journalism, one of four such awards for Headline Surfer.
Headline Surfer photo by Serafina Frederick / Douglas Gibson, then just a coitizen of Oak Hill, listens as the City Commission debates controversial issues involving the policve force under then-Police Chief Diane Young shown standing in the back, judt weeks before his appoitment in the sptring of 2011 to the commission that ultimately led to the police force being shut down.
Having been appointed to the commission just months earlier to fill a vacvancy, Gibson was part of a 3-2 vote to immediately shut down the police department in favor of coverage by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Gibson said he believes the smooth transition in policing has energized the voting public as demonstrated by the turnout in last month's election, which he won over then-Commissioner and Vice Mayor Linda Hyatt, a supporter of the former police chief, with 461 votes or 51.8% to Hyatt's 429 votes or 48.2% of the 890 votes cast.
As he readies for 2013, Gibson said he'd like to see Oak Hill phase in modernized sewer and water and to look at ways to enhance eco-tourism along the waterfront with Mosquito Lagoon as the centerpiece. You can watch what Gibson has to say about his plans for Oak Hill in The Sunday Conversation by clicking the video at the top of the story.
Videos produced by Serafina Frederick / Mayor Douglas Gibson is sworn in after the Nov. 6 election victory. In the second video, then-Mayor Mary Lee Cook, 85, speaks briefly with Headline Surfer after stepping down from the dais.
Award-winning story:
Ex-Oak Hill Mayor: Embattled Police Chief Diane Young not only snorted coke and smoked pot, but also popped ludes