NORMAN Okla. – Rhett Jones is running for Ward 4 seat, and will be facing Christina Owen and Bill Hickman.

Jones is the owner of two business and consultant for Don Armstrong CPA in downtown Norman.

A drummer and passionate about music, playing in some local bands, Jones is also at the board member of the Norman Arts Council and a committee member of the Norman Music Festival.

During a recent interview with Red Dirt Report, Jones, 40, said the downtown area has seen a revival in recent years with an increase of new businesses and events and he wants this growth to continue.

“It is not just necessary a pass through for evening rush hour, it is a destination again,” he said of downtown Norman. “As the events have been successful over the year you have more merchants coming in the downtown.”

Jones said he supports making Main and Gray streets two-way roads in the downtown area.

“I think it is better for economic development, it will make more pedestrian and bike friendly, slows down traffic and make more that the destination that it is,” Jones said.

In addition, Jones totally approved the project to connect Campus Corner and Downtown Norman via the creation of new businesses along Webster Avenue and University Boulevard.

“The easy it is to connect these two districts, the more money the two districts will generate and more people will come in each district,” he said.

Then Jones said there are numerous neighborhood issues in progress in Ward 4.

“There are so much going on and you follow as best as you can but it just affect so many that I know; friends, family and more,” he said.

Jones showed as an example a plant bed covered with detritus at the corner of Crawford Avenue and Main Street (just beside the local tourism office) and said there are four entities that are taking care about the cleanliness of the city.

“I think the department that is responsible for this corner should realize there are not keeping up with their assigned job,” said Jones, noting a volunteer’s cleanup will be organized soon.

Jones added the city government is doing its job even if sometimes they are overwhelmed.

According to Jones, the University of Oklahoma attracts a lot of talented people but the city is not able to maintain these talents after their graduation and more project should be launch to keep them locally.

“So many people lives in Norman because the University of Oklahoma, they stay here temporarily and then move somewhere else," he observed. "That is a lot of people over the decades."

Further concerning the new project of oil pipeline Jones said it is a county and state issue, and the city government doesn’t have a real power on this project.

“Anything they said is going to supercede whatever local legislators do in Norman,” he said, proposing that each candidate should encourage more people to register for voting to thereby influence state government.

The Ward 4 candidate expressed his long-time support of the new aquatic center project included in Norman Forward.

“Baseball and other sports facilities played a big role in getting the project passed,” he said.

This is the third time Jones is running for Ward 4 seat and he believes more people will vote for him this time.

“It is good to participate in the community. People are very supportive,” Jones told Red Dirt Report.

In response to why people should vote for Jones, he said, “My family has been in Ward 4 since 1920. I just spend my day to day existence in Ward 4. And I pay intention in the socio-economic progress of the city.”