MAYORAL ELECTION 2006:
MEET THE CANDIDATES
By Lou Duro
       
  To paraphrase the famous line from the hit stage show, The Music Man, there's trouble in Gouves city and it begins with a capitol C-P. The C-P in this case stands for City Plan, and it must be trouble, indeed, if all three candidates for mayor of the Gouves Township (Demos) make it their number one issue in the upcoming Oct. 15 election. And, what's the trouble with it? Well, the darn thing just doesn't exist – and never has! There are cheap imitations of it floating around, from Kokkini Hani to Gournes to Gouves, which are actually plans for each individual village, but the real thing – the all-encompassing City Plan for the entire township – has been as elusive as the kri-kris on Dia Island.

Of course, there are many other issues of major importance for Gouves. After all, it is generally agreed that the township practically stagnated for the eight years of the current mayor, who headed an administration that most people say was "unresponsive" to the needs of the people. Even for this newspaper, it was difficult extracting any pertinent information from town hall – a frustrating situation which led our reporter to exclaim, "it's like pulling teeth, and if I wanted to do that I would have been a dentist and made a lot more money!"
But, all that is history. When the smoke clears after Election Day, either Yiorgos Nikolakakis, Mihalis Plevrakis, or Nikos Stavroulakis will be occupying the big office in town hall. Each of the candidates head multi-party slates which include two assistant mayors, 12 town council members and numerous village committee members, a number that varies according to the population of each village. Just who are these brave souls who want to tackle the woes of the township? The Ko-Go Khronicles met with each of them separately, and this is what we found out. All three candidates demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the area's problems, as well as the ability to get things done! We are not offering any endorsement – we're simply presenting short profiles, in alphabetical order, to help you make up your own mind.

Yiorgos Nikolakakis, 53, of the old village of Gouves, has been a professor of sociology at the University of Crete for 20 years. Married with one child, this is the first time that he is running for elected office. Why this time? He said, only half jokingly, he was sitting around discussing the issues affecting the area, and his friends said: you know so much, you should run for mayor. And, he did!
"A unified city plan is mandatory," he said. "The demos is not only along the seashore and the national road, "it's all 13 villages. We must develop our city for the benefit of everyone. Without this, we can do nothing positive."
He said the plan must include specific areas of development. "We need to look at improving housing, tourism, industry and, of course, the old villages, too. While putting emphasis on areas along the main street, we've let the villages deteriorate to the point that many have no young people left. It's a shame to let this happen. We should make sure that each village develops in its own right, including schools so that young families don't have to move for the sake of their children."
When asked about the current tourism problems of the area, Mr. Nikolakakis had some definite ideas. "We must work in conjunction with the big hotels, not fight them over the all-inclusive situation. Right now they are attracting a lower quality of tourists, the type that prefers the cheaper, package plans. But it is up to us to improve the area, make it more attractive. In that way we will have the opportunity to lure a higher quality of tourists for the benefit of everyone."

Mihalis Plevrakis, 54, of Koxari, has been a manager with the Postal Service for over 30 years, and has served in various positions of local and national politics for many years. He is married with one child. At the time of this writing, he was the only one of the three candidates who had a staffed community campaign office, located at the crossroads in Gouves. If elected, he plans to keep the premises and convert it to a local community office staffed with multi-lingual workers in order to maintain a better dialogue with all the people of the township.
"Of course, the City Plan is of the utmost importance," he said. "But after we get it signed, we can only implement it with the help and cooperation of all the people in the demos – homeowners, shopkeepers, businessmen, farmers. We must all work together for a better community."
Asked about upgrading the community, as in assigning street names and house numbers, so that homeowners could have proper addresses, Mr. Plevrakis nodded, and smiled. "Working with the post office for so many years, I am very aware of the problem, especially for the many new people moving into the area. But, once again, we must get the City Plan before we undertake such a plan. We must look at the entire area, and assign numbers to every plot. That part is not too difficult – it's the naming of the streets that will prove the most trying, with everyone wanting their family name to be considered."
Mr. Plevrakis said the demos is very fortunate to have two virtually untapped resources for its future use – the military base in Gournes and Dia Island. "The base property belongs to us and I plan to get it turned over to the demos. It would be a perfect location for a small hospital unit to provide medical care for the area. And, I would welcome any organization or serious parties interested in developing Dia Island, but only with involvement of our demos."

Nikos Stavroulakis, 48, of Gouves, is a teacher at the new technical school, which was built on the site of the old military base in Gournes. He is married with three children. Prior to becoming a school teacher, he worked as a shopkeeper and hotel operator in his family's businesses in Kato Gouves.
"Because of my background, I have full understanding of all the issues of concern for the people of the demos," he said, "especially tourism and education. Once we have a workable and unified City Plan, the completion of which is our first and foremost undertaking, we can address all of the other issues. In tourism, one of our most important industries, we must upgrade to a higher level. We became complacent and let the tour companies dictate the type of tourism for our area, and it resulted in the all-inclusive hotels. We must educate the shopkeepers and businesses to provide a higher level of services and products. And, speaking of education, we need to build bigger schools throughout the demos, rather than small local schools.
Mr. Stavroulakis said the water system will be a priority in his administration. "There's no need for entire areas to be without water at any time throughout the summer months. We have the wells, the water, we just need a better system. We must find a way to separate the drinking water from the agricultural water. Farms don't need purified water; it could be a little brackish.
While all three candidates have, of course, many other pertinent issues, we selected only a few – as space is limited. We think we provided a good summary of their platforms. We would like to add that all three slates have an extremely impressive list of qualified council members running on the same ballot. And, they all agreed to support a campaign to register foreign voters. So, if you're registered to vote, get to the ballot box on Oct. 15. If you're not registered, shame on you! You'll get your chance next time around!