*Reconstruction of County Road #11.
*Construction of County Road #18.
*Miles of hiking/biking trails.
*Nature's Bounty Garden and Gift Center
*Bruce Baker Dental Building
*Huge HEI addition
*First Downtown Stoplight
*Miles of biking/walking trails
*Stieger Lake Stores/Cabin Fever complex
*Victoria State Bank additions
*Victoria House Remodeling
*Renovation of Floyd's
*Victoria Autohaus
*Lions Park Shelters
At this time the Gazette could do a feature on the various residential neigh-borhoods that developed under the lead-ership and watchful eye of Mayor Mary ...
*Swiss Mountain Farm
*Wintergreen
*Tristan Heights
*Garden Path
*Allegheny Grove
*Savanna Valley
*Applewood
*Deer Run Additions
*Watermark
*Kelzer's Pond
*Parkview Estates
At this time the Gazette could do a feature on the downtown properties that were purchased by the City of Victoria in these last eight years in preparation for downtown redevelopment ...
*Tim Cox/Tuffy's Tavern Site
*Bill Schmieg Bottle Shop Site
*Victoria Auto Body Shop Site
*Jerry Noreen House Site
*Three Homes on Stieger Lake Site
*Sidco/Braunworth property Site
At this time the Gazette could do a feature on the projects expected to soon land in Victoria because of initiatives taken during the era of Mayor Mary ...
*More Diethelm Park improvements *Hartman Retail Center
*$5 Million CondoProject on Stieger Lk.
*New downtown streets
*Underground electrical
*New downtown parking lots
*Annexation of Laketown Township
*City-wide street reconstruction
At this time the Gazette could do a feature on bold and brave decisions to order two lengthy building moratoriums in order to plan adequate public facilities for this growing area.  Led by Mayor Mary, city fathers also ordered and coordinated huge studies:
*The East Side Study meant meetings with several property owners and interested parties including School District #112, Carver County, and the MN Landscape Arboretum.  The Study prepared the way for Diethelm Park, the Catholic high school, site for the new water tower, and several new neighbor-hoods.
*The South Side Study will help bring adequate public facilities to property owners in Laketown Township when they petition for annexation to the City of Victoria.   
*The Downtown Study shows how new streets and new retail and new park-ing can be coordinated for the benefit of existing businesses and the growing residential population.
At this time the Gazette could do a feature on the storms that Mayor Mary and other councilmembers worked through these past eight years such as ....
*The tornadic winds, huge destruc-tion, and subsequent city-wide cleanup from the Storm of May 15th, 1998.
*The tragic house fire at Deer Run and horrific wind damage from the Storm of May 30th, 1998. 
*The residential fury due to the lighting of Victoria ballfields.
*The inconvenient water shortage during the Summer of 1996.
*The heartfelt struggle to make board members of School District #112 stand up to their referendum agreement to build the next public elementary school in Victoria.
*The campaign to introduce Mary Jo Copeland's campus home for 200 disenfranchised children to Victoria.
*The battle of trying to appease a vocal minority of downtown homeowners and yet allow construction of a much needed car wash in a commercial district.
*The conflict between slalom skiers and other homeowners on Schutz Lake.
*The fight to replace the dilapidated and outdated Sport Court with a multi-use Field House and Ice Arena.
*The contention in approving or denying a private preschool in the city's Acorn House.
How does one begin to capture hundreds and thousands of hours of special workshops and meetings and conversations that try men's souls, but not Mary's?  They cannot be adequately captured in this newspaper.
The Gazette chooses at this time to do its first edition of 2003 on a variety of residents and groups caught on camera with Mayor Mary Meuwissen over these past eight years.  Although incomplete in almost every way, the collage does remind us of moments and miles in an era that has come and gone so quickly.
Thank you, Mary, for all that you have done for the people of Victoria, for helping to build us a beautiful and lasting bridge -- both literally and figuratively -- into the new millennium, for caring enough to continually give above and beyond the call of duty, for using your extensive talents for the betterment of humankind, and, most especially, for being a seeker of truth.  You arrived on the Victoria scene at the right time.  May your future be as good and as bright as you are.  Happy New Year.