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Thomas Stepping Down As Albany Mayor


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Albany Mayor Georganne Thomas announced she is stepping down from her position effective immediately. 

 

Village Council President Tim Kirkendall, who will serve as mayor for the remainder of Thomas' term, which ends Dec. 31, 2011. He is running unopposed for mayor in the November election. 

 
Thomas says she decided to step down for personal reasons. "This has been a bad year for me. I've been mayor for five years but this year many things happened. I only had two cousins my whole life and one of them died. Then, I had a scare of reoccurrence of my breast cancer. Then my mother died after a six year battle with Alzheimers and Dementia. It just took all that I had out of me. I didn't take time off. I worked through it because I felt it was my duty to fulfill my responsibilities and so I just let myself get to the point that I didn't have the energy to do it," Thomas said. 
 
Thomas explains resigning immediately gives her the opportunity to give Kirkendall a smooth transition from Village Council President to mayor. She says she plans to stay involved with the community. "I'll still be coming to council meetings. There was a motion made to place me on Council. It did not pass but it takes three readings so we will know in another month or so. I do have the time for Council. I don't have the time for the amount of stress that the mayor's job has," said Thomas. She also plans to be more involved in her church and her breast cancer support group.