Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Chelsea Mayor Tony Picklesimer wishes the city a Happy New Year at Chelsea City Hall.
There will be plenty to watch along the U.S. 280 corridor in 2025. To kick off the new year, we’re highlighting five things worth attention in the new year, including mayoral changes in Chelsea.
Chelsea will be getting a new mayor for the first time in nine years. Mayor Tony Picklesimer will not be running when the elections come in 2025.
“It has been a terrific experience and the good days outweigh the bad,” Picklesimer said. “But, you know, 10 years on the council, and now that will be nine years as mayor. That's a pretty good run. So my wife is ready for us to do something different.”
Picklesimer said he will continue to work at Pennsylvania Steel, where he does sales, but the hours won’t be as long since he won’t be wearing two hats.
“I'm going to take a more active role in that business,” he said. “But I would say I want to semi-retire.”
Picklesimer said he was proud of a number of achievements by the city government while he served as mayor, including buying the library, improvements at the Highway 11 Sports Complex, the addition of the second gym at the Chelsea Community Center and a third fire station.
But, the biggest accomplishment may be the passing of the one-cent sales tax for schools in 2019. The revenue generated from that has been used to invest in a wide variety of improvements at the schools in Chelsea in cooperation with Shelby County Schools, which administers the schools.
“We've literally given about $6.5 million at the high school, $4.5 million at Chelsea Park Elementary and almost $2 million in classroom grants,” Picklesimer said.
Check out the rest of the articles in our 5 Changes for 2025 series here.
