Article Image Alt Text

Copperas Cove city council candidate holds first meet and greet

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

Place 3 City Council Candidate Shawn Alzona held a small meet and greet at Studio Three Saturday afternoon. 

In attendance were current council members Dan Yancey, Fred Chavez, Joann Courtland and Vonya Hart as well as local media and close friends and family of Alzona. 

With councilmember Dan Yancey filing to run for mayor, his unexpired term for Place 3 is up for grabs in a special election this fall. 

So far, three candidates have filed to run for Place 3: Alzona, Scott Remalia and William Gregory Smith. 

Alzona sat down with his campaign manager and those in attendance to share his vision and background. 

He moved to Copperas Cove originally in 1998 when he was first stationed at Fort Hood. He was stationed in Korea and then came back to Fort Hood in 2006.  He served in the U.S. Army for nearly 22 years, first as an enlisted soldier and then becoming an officer. He retired from the Army in January 2017 to work in the private sector, working for H-E-B on the warehouse side, working with process improvement, project management and dealing with budgets and timelines. 

Alzona is also a member of the Leadership Diversity Council for H-E-B as well, which he says is an important role for him.  

“Diversity is really important to me, in general,” Alzona said. “I believe that you have to have diversity to be successful. You can’t have a group or a team of all the same people with all the same thoughts and all the same ideas and expect progress. So, with diversity, you get diverse opinions, you get diverse trains of thoughts, and that is how I think as a people, just in general, we’re able to move forward and succeed.”

Alzona has served on the Parks and Recreation Quality of Life Advisory Board for the past couple of years. Through this experience, he was able to see city operations from the Parks and Recreation side, he said. 

This gave him more of an interest in local government and how the city works. 

“Copperas Cove is a great city, and it’s growing,” Alzona said. “I want to be part of that growth. I want to help make sure that we are successful growing. As we grow, we’re going to grow in a lot of ways, and I think we can take advantage of that.”

Alzona said that he is now at a point where he felt he could run for city council. 

“I enjoyed working with the Quality of Life Board to do things to help improve things for the citizens of Copperas Cove, and it was Parks and Rec,” Alzona said. “I think in the city council, I can work with the city council, and I can work with the other council members to effect on a broader scale, to make sure we keep things going in a positive direction on a broader scale, with the city council, as opposed to the [Quality of Life] board.”

 Alzona graduated in the inaugural class from Texas A&M University Central Texas with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management. 

His son and daughter have each attended Copperas Cove ISD since kindergarten. His son has graduated high school while his daughter is in junior high. 

“I intend to stay here till they finish. We’ll keep going, and as long as I’m here, I think, in a personal sense, I owe it to the community to do things to help the community.” 

Alzona mentioned that the growth in Copperas Cove was one of the more important issues he wanted to focus on. 

“It’s happening, and we want to make sure that we can find ways to use that growth to our advantage,” Alzona said. 

Alzona said he would want to lean on the city’s directors and also hear feedback from citizens regarding any other issues. 

Alzona’s campaign will be holding more events where he can interact with the public next month and in October. 

Copperas Cove Leader Press

2210 U.S. 190
Copperas Cove, TX 76522
Phone:(254) 547-4207