“POULSBO – The phone has been ringing off the hook. People want another viable alternative, Poulsbo City Councilman Mike Regis said Monday of his decision to seek the the position of mayor. He plans to file at city hall next week, joining candidate Sherry Appleton and incumbent Mayor Donna Jean Bruce in the election race. Regis said he wants to see the mayor position stabilized and have it become a seat that helps focus council on both present and future projects. Infrastructure, according to the candidate, would be his paramount concern should he be elected. We need to keep cost down but still maintain the system, Regis noted, adding that the city’s infrastructure of roads, water and sewer was in dire need of attention. I’m a public works mayor – I believe in public works first. While he has a 20-year background in planning and public works process, Regis is also becoming an expert to some degree on elections. Though not always successful ones. He ran losing campaigns for council in 1995 and mayor in 1997 but the two experiences helped me run in 1999. Regis won that year and has been in council position one ever since. We don’t have a structured vision of infrastructure, he said, noting that instead of addressing Poulsbo’s long-standing issues, the city has opted to settle for temporary patch projects. What we do today will affect the city and should be viable 10 years from now. Regis said he wanted to keep his campaign plans simple and serve the community in a cost-effective way. Basic infrastructure services are presently compromised, he remarked. We’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted for the past 10 years, Regis commented. We must stop acting like this is Twitsville and remember the strength of the citizens in the past as they initiated this community. “