By L. Parsons Roberta “Birdie” Wilcox Cano has been elected as Winslow’s next Mayor. Born and raised in Winslow, Birdie returned to town in 2005 to raise her four children and to give back to the community that raised her. Early this year, she began a campaign to become the mayor so she could do just that. According to Cano, “When I moved back I did so because I missed the community feeling that Winslow has. I had no time for anything when I lived in bigger cities and I really wanted to get back to slowing down, I wanted to ‘take it easy.’ I came back with hope that it was going to grow and become what I see it being. Winslow has a great location, we have land, we have water, we have great people. I wanted to know what the holdup was.” Cano has been a volunteer and a community organizer for most of her life. However, she said, “I never had a political path, I never thought I would run for an office in any way, shape or form. I just saw that things needed to get better and you have to be part of the solution. The whole idea is to just be the change I want to see in the world, for everyone.” By taking the majority of votes Cano becomes the first Native American to ever serve as mayor of Winslow and only one of two Native American women to ever sit on the council. Melissa Butler-Nelson, also elected in November is the other. Cano said, “I do believe that representation is so important. I am proud of my heritage and I will do my best to serve this community. All of this community.” She continued, “One of the main reasons I decided to run is because, if you look at our council traditionally, there has not been a diverse group that actually reflects what our population consists of. We absolutely needed more people of color making decisions for the people of color in our city.” Cano’s cited another motivator for entering into a political campaign. “I saw many things that we, as a city, could just do better. I have worked in some capacity for the city for almost a decade. So, let’s just say I witnessed some missed opportunities as far as bringing businesses and development to town. I saw some missed opportunities for networking and grants and things like that. I am ready to go after some of those missed opportunities as mayor.” Cano is also focused on bringing people together. She talks a lot about neighbors helping neighbors and how she plans to implement an open door policy so she may hear from the various neighborhoods within Winslow. “I didn’t grow up in South Side but I feel like I am South Side, or Taylor Town, or Kell Place. I am the same as the people who live and work and raise their kids in Winslow. I want people to know that I will be available to listen to their concerns. I want to let them know that I will take a phone call, or a visit, just to catch up on things that I may miss.” She wants to maintain the momentum that is taking shape in Winslow and to bring in other towns as well. “There is no reason that Winslow, Joseph City and Holbrook cannot work together. There is no reason we can’t bring in the Navajo Nation and other surrounding places to work together. This is all our community and we will be stronger together. We need to start doing away with some red tape and some old ways of doing things.” Housing and jobs have been ongoing issues in Winslow as they have been in many rural towns across the country. Cano explained that she would like to see the city reach out to developers, large and small to bring those things to town. “Let’s figure out how we can make these things work instead of why they can’t. We may need to take a look at our city codes and ordinances to make sure they are not so restrictive that they drive developers away. In order for us to grow and to be the thing that I came back for, we need to get that push. We have all of these wonderful components; we just need something to get it going. “We have people that commute from surrounding communities. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a starter home type subdivision for those people? If we got an industry to come in, like we are seeing with the C6 Zero project, we need a place for those workers to live. We need to be ready when the momentum picks up and we need to make sure we can accommodate change.” Cano concluded, “I would love to see young people and young families stay here and have their careers here. If we were to grow our population, we would have to have more amenities. More grocery stores, more options, more businesses. We need to be researching towns with similar demographics, we need to be calling and asking the questions, and really being proactive in seeking opportunities. “We are moving in the right direction and I think we have the talent and the motivation to continue that movement. I am ready to unite this community to help clean up weeds and blight, and to care about each other. I am excited to take on this challenge and so incredibly grateful for the support of everyone who can see the vision of what Winslow can be.”
