Surrounded by friends and family, Deana Michaels pledged to help revitalize Fulton. She was sworn in as the city’s mayor on Wednesday afternoon following a goal her family encouraged her to set in the first place.

"My decision came when my son challenged me to do something about the changes we were talking about in the city of Fulton,” said Deana. “We'd often talk about the things that were right and things that weren't going so right."

Deana used that as a starting point for her plan, inspired to make the city somewhere her son wants to live.

"I love this city and I'm proud we raised our children here, but the reality is there's work to be done,” said Deana. “The safety of the neighborhood has to be key. I don't want any family, anyone to be nervous walking out on our streets."

Deana's son, Geoffry Michaels, promised her he'd stay in town if she became mayor. He graduated from SUNY ESF last spring and now works at the ethanol plant, but many of his childhood friends saw no future in Fulton.

"You know, I look around the town and all my friends are all, none of them stuck around,” said Geoffry. “You know, anyone who's doing big careers they're all out of town."

Now it's his mom's job to help create jobs and make Fulton a place they want to come back to. About 22,000 vehicles pass through the city every day, and Deana is going to spend her four years in office making sure people want to stop.

"We have to make sure that there are things to do here, so economic development and planning, development, parks, and recreation,” said Deana. “All that's part of it. We have to give people a reason to stop. And we're going to do that."

Deana is on the committee that helped secure $10 million in revitalization funding for the city. Part of that will be used to build a manufacturing start-up facility at the old Nestle site. It’s a sweet start for Deana to lead the city toward a new future.