TROTWOOD, Ohio (WDTN) – New Trotwood mayor Mary McDonald has been on the job for about three months now. We talked to her back in November, when she defeated incumbent Joyce Sutton. McDonald told us then that she planned to bring change and new business to the area.

2 NEWS reporter Jordan Bowen sat down with her and is asking questions about the steps she’s taken toward those goals.

During the last 3 months, Mary McDonald says she’s been working to stabilize the City of Trotwood by filling a number of empty positions, seeking out new opportunities and ultimately bringing the people of Trotwood together.

Since taking office in January, Trotwood Mayor Mary Donald’s main focus has been on improving Trotwood’s economy. And to do that she’s hired a new economic development director for the city, who starts work next week.

“He will be laser-focused in on commercial development. That’s what his job is. That’s what we want to see happen,” McDonald said. “We need to fill those empty building out here with tenants that will really add value to the City of Trotwood.”

After major retailers, like Sears and Target left the area, McDonald says she’s been working to bring in new businesses, not just retail shops.

“Retail is wonderful, but a lot of the times the income level are not living wage,” McDonald said. “We’re trying to go for those kinds of jobs and we believe once we do that the retail and everything else will come back.”

Over the course of 2016, McDonald is hoping to grow industries like small manufacturing.

“We believe small-manufacturing is a plus for our community,” McDonald said. “We’re a natural fit for it with GM and Chrysler all of that being a part of this community. We are poised to be a place where manufacturing could look.”

McDonald planned to hold a town hall meeting within her first 90 days in office. She still plans to, it’s just not happening as soon as she would’ve liked.

“We’re going to sit down with our citizens and were going to talk about our community, what we need to do and what we need to say to make our community the place we want it to be.”