Mike Amyx seems to have his priorities straight as he begins his term as Lawrence’s mayor.

In an interview last week, Amyx placed fixing streets and sewers high on the city’s priority list and adopted the practical position that most of his year as mayor will be spent dealing with old ideas and issues rather than on searching for new projects to work on.

Amyx also accurately acknowledged that the City Commission’s most important job while he is mayor will be to hire a new city manager. It’s a process he hopes to have wrapped up by August. Amyx and outgoing mayor Boog Highberger did not vote to seek Mike Wildgen’s resignation as city manager, and both went out of their way Tuesday night to thank Wildgen for his service. Now, however, Amyx says he is determined to look ahead and lead a focused and united effort to hire a replacement for Wildgen.

The other top priority for Amyx is to restore confidence in city government and city services. Lawrence has had strong, clean city government for many years, but Amyx is right that questions over sewer capacity in northwest Lawrence and revelations concerning the need to update streets and other city infrastructure have raised some doubts in residents’ minds.

It may be a time for the city to get back to basics, and Amyx seems happy to take us in that direction, which bodes well for his year as mayor.