Peering at the road ahead through the windshield of his green Chevrolet van, Anthony Mealy cannot help but spout stories. Fully loaded with anecdotes and history, Mealy gives life to every storefront, street or pond — even if you don’t ask for it. He is blunt and honest. “To be perfectly candid,” is his repeated mantra.

Mealy has lived in Oberlin 40 years now — he is ready to wax nostalgic at every corner.

“Twenty years ago it was a little less hectic,” he said. “We were a little more ahead of the game.”

Twenty years ago Mealy was coming to the end of a year in his seat in City Council. In November 2005, he ran for City Council again, and was elected.

Originally from Hyattsville, Maryland, a Washington D.C. suburb, Mealy spent 1961-1965 in the Air Force working with interceptors.

Upon leaving, he took a job with the FAA. He did air traffic control at the FAA site in town on East Lorain, working the air route to Cleveland, readying itself at the time to become a major industrial center of the Midwest.

“We went on strike in ’81,” he said. “Reagan fired all of us.”

He took a job working at the Grafton Correctional Facility where he worked until his retirement in February 2004. Throughout  his career he served in various organizations and on several public boards but now devotes most of his attention to City Council.

“People shouldn’t do it if they can’t give the time,” he said. “It takes a full-time commitment if you’re really going to serve the community.”

Though City Council is generally at a consensus, the current Council is split over certain issues. Mealy rejoined what Council President Daniel Gardner called “a very divided and divisive City Council” — disputes regarding how to treat the SCA development project revealed how fractured it can be.

When SCA, a group of three Oberlin graduates and first time developers, requested a $1.5 Million Tax Increment Financing loan, the City Council barely approved the measure, passing it by a 4-3 margin.

Mealy’s opposition to TIFs is far from new. He leans on a metal barrier on the side of the road south of town near the Cleveland Quarries base, a hundred feet above a quarried lake filled with aquamarine water, decrying a TIF that almost brought gaudy development to this tranquil but ecologically problematic space. With SCA’s TIF already in the works, Mealy’s 2005 campaign flyer advocated for “sensible economic development, not TIF tax diversion.” He does not hesitate to call TIFs, intended to be paid back through rising property value taxes, a “giveaway.”

“I said from the get-go, ‘great idea,’” Mealy said. “The problem is I thought they should do it on their own dime.”

It is not, however, just the private-public aspects that irk Mealy. He believes that it seems there is a lack of perspective and understanding of the town that makes him resistant.

“The three of us [Mealy, Councilman Everett Tyree and Vice President Ronnie Rimbert] have been here the longest,” he said, referring to the other two council members that stood against the TIF for SCA. “It’s like there’s people that come visit Oberlin for three days and talk about how much they love the town, but three days later they want to tell us what to do.”

Mealy, however, does not want to drive away development. He pulls up to every vacant storefront on the Amherst strip and stares with bright green eyes. Amidst Amherst’s litter of McDonald’ses and Pizza Huts, he recounts with sadness a recent trip where he counted 14 vacant storefronts in Amherst’s miniscule downtown.

“Forty years ago we expected growth,” he said with avuncular authority. “My priority is that we have growth, but that it’s planned. We don’t want to go willy-nilly like a lot of these other towns,” he said while driving past a complex of abandoned office space.

Development is not the most important issue to Mealy. The big issues, to him, are ones of space. Mealy is eager to complete work on a garage downtown, and to begin getting more space for the Court Building, police station and City Hall.

“Just look at this,” he said, pointing out a few scattered rooms in City Hall that are crowded with stacks of files.

Mealy recognizes the unique situation of college towns. Though Oberlin College and City Council have butted heads over lack of communication on projects by the Arboretum and Johnson House, the complexities of the relationship are not lost on him.

“We’re okay. There have been ups and downs, but overall we’re good,” he said. “They are, after all, the largest employer in town and own most of the property.”

Contention usually arises in college towns as a result of colleges’ non-profit status. Though Oberlin College owns a healthy portion of property in town, it does not pay property taxes on it.

“I like to put the thumb on the College because they’re a big business,” said Mealy with a laugh. “If they’re a big business we have got to work together. There haven’t been many fights or any acrimony, but they need to be cognizant that we have a responsibility to the townspeople first.”

Mealy busies himself working in every possible facet for the city. But on a good day, he’ll take time off to flesh out any story or issue with the utmost assuredness of his account. Perhaps that’s what makes it compelling to listen to him.