PROCTORVILLE — It is still a month away before Charles Stapleton takes office as mayor of Proctorville. But already he is filled with goals he wishes to implement as the chief executive officer of the village.

“The main goal is to get the town back in shape,” he said in a recent phone interview. “It is looking pretty bad. The alleys are in bad shape. Culverts need to be cleaned out and a few sidewalks need to be replaced.”

Also Stapleton, 63, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Postal Service, wants to address a situation he sees concerning absentee landlords.

“Their houses are in bad shape,” he said. “If they take people’s money for rent, they are going to have to clean those houses up. Some of them need painting bad. If they cooperate, we should get it back in shape.”

Stapleton, who grew up in Proctorville before joining the Air Force, is not new to village political life. Before he sought the post of mayor, he was on the village council off and on for about 10 years. He came back to Proctorville after retiring from the Air Force and became a postal worker in Huntington before retiring from that job.

But the infrastructure of his home village is not the only concern of Proctorville’s new mayor. He also wants to target both the youth of the village and its senior citizens to offer any needed assistance.

“We have a lot of senior citizens. My goal is to check on them. … try to get them together as a community … meet and give them a dinner,” he said. “I’ll pay for it. It is no cost to the village.”

He also wants to offer an in ground pool on his property for use to the youth in the community.

He sees his community as one with a lot of resources as far as individuals with specified expertise. And he hopes to draw upon them. One of those resources is Operation TLC.

“I am going to try to work with those ladies,” he said. “They can help us and we can help them clean this place up.”