Some believe that David Wood gained a second council vote when his daughter, Sara, was elected to Moundsville City Council.
Um, well, not exactly.
The 31-year-old councilwoman-at-large has been a member the last two years, and she and her father, Mayor Wood, have not agreed on everything. He did, however, agree with her running for the seat.
“When I told my father that I planned to run for a seat on city council, he encouraged me. He’s always encouraged me with whatever it has been that I wanted to do,” Wood said. “His reaction was genuine, but that’s because I have come up with some crazier ideas than running for council.
“The only thing he did say was that if I lost my race, he was moving out of town,” she said with a laugh. “He said he knew how upset and disappointed I would be. He said, ‘I don’t want to live here if you lose.’ He was joking, of course, but yeah, I would have been devastated, so it’s a good thing I won.”
Their first disagreement didn’t take long to occur either.
“I believe it was second meeting, and we were voting on whether or not to allow alcohol at our city festivals and events,” Wood recalled. “We had been talking about doing the Friday night music shows on Jefferson Avenue, and he voted against that, and I voted yes on that. It was the first vote where we differed.
“I do believe he was the only member who voted no on that one because he didn’t feel it was necessary,” she said. “He just wanted to avoid the issues that come with people over-consuming at a festival or an event, and that was very understandable.”
Youth Infusion
Sara had moved away from Moundsville for close to a decade, but then decided to move home for a position at West Virginia Northern Community College. After her homecoming, though, the young lady didn’t notice anything new.
There was the old prison. Oh, and yeah, the namesake Mound, too.
Wood didn’t plan to change the world or even Moundsville when she filed her candidacy papers, but it was she who believed a younger perspective could benefit the six other council members.
“My father didn’t really have anything to do with me deciding to run for council, but I was familiar with the process because of his service to the city,” Wood explained. “I have always had an interested in the political process, though, and I was determined at a young age to get involved with my community. Plus, when I looked at city council, I didn’t see a young voice.
“When I was elected, I became the youngest member of council by 25 years,” she explained. “I lived away from the area for a little while, and when I moved back, I saw the need and I wanted to become involved.”
How Are Family Dinners?
Do they debate? Does daughter attempt to sway Dad or vice versa? Does this father-daughter duo actually argue?
Again … um, well, not exactly.
“We talk about everything, but we haven’t gotten into a single argument,” Wood said. “Now, there really haven’t been any controversial issues that we’ve voted on, but we have voted differently on some things. But there have not been any issues that we’ve discussed that we have been on completely opposite sides.
“Even before I was a council member, my dad and I would talk about the issues in the city, and I remember when there was a vote about allowing campers in the park, and I was really against that idea,” Wood added. “He was on the fence on that one, and he did end up voting no on that. I’m not sure if I swayed him or not, but I was glad he voted the way he did.”
