Dan Leap, Merriam's rock-and-roll councilman, wants to be the suburb's next mayor.
Leap plays guitar and sells lamps constructed from microphone stands and Fenders. (The guitar strings work as dimmer switches.) He has served on the council for six years, after unseating an incumbent he depicted as a witch in a window display of his rock shop in downtown Merriam.
On the council, Leap has pushed for transparency and voted against efforts to lure development with tax incentives. His vote against a plan to redevelop a site along Interstate 35 and Johnson Drive looks prescient. The development's anchor tenant, Circuit City, filed for bankruptcy protection before it could ring up a sale.
Leap thinks the city has taken some wrong turns. A city of 11,000, Merriam owes $24 million on bonds issued to finance various projects, Leap says. He's also critical of a property-tax increase the council approved last summer. On his Web site, Leap says the council has turned Turkey Creek into "the Red River."
Leap, incumbent Carl Wilkes and two others meet in a primary on March 3. "The campaign is going great!" Leap says in an e-mail.
A Leap campaign is seldom boring. While running for council, Leap and some musician friends stood on a trailer and banged out tunes while parading around town attached to a pickup truck.
Showing 1-1 of 1
like
dislike
