STRUTHERS — When the first female mayor of Struthers took office on Jan. 1, she could never have guessed her coming roller coaster ride.

Catherine Cercone Miller knew that negotiations with the police department would be under way, but then the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide civil unrest quickly took priority.

“We had, like everyone, heard some rumblings of things here and there,” Miller said of the pandemic in the first days of taking office. “You never think it’s going to happen to you.”

Once COVID-19 response was in full swing, a city curfew was instituted, said Tim Daley, the city’s safety service director.

“It was something we had been talking about,” Miller said.

When it comes to making decisions, Miller said she doesn’t make them just because she can.

“A lot of the big decisions I make are not decisions because I’m the mayor,” she said. “They’re decisions that I’ve wracked (Daley’s) brain, or see where the law director is at — see what their opinions are because I value what they say.”

Miller said she believes in making decisions as a team, and sees herself as a team leader. “In doing that, I respect the opinions around me,” she said.

Miller said she’s surrounded herself with positive people, striving to make Struthers the best it can be: “I have a good core group of people I can trust.”

Keeping her “all hands on deck” approach, Miller said she was surprised, when meeting with each city employee one-on-one in her first days in office, that so many people had ideas for Struthers.

She was impressed by “the amount of ideas our employees have, our residents have, now they know they have someone who will listen,” she said. Encouraging people to come forward with their thoughts, she said: “Tell me why it can’t be done.”

“I think the best thing she’s done so far is bring the city together,” Daley said.

In the past, people didn’t want to go to city hall, he said. “Now, they come up just to say hello.”

Miller acknowledged that navigating through a pandemic isn’t something you find in a manual.

“This is something none of us have gone through,” Miller noted, especially when the information and guidelines often change. “We just have to get through this together.”

As for civil unrest and nationwide concerns about how some police treat blacks, Miller said that racism of any kind is not supported in Struthers.

“I think that was evident in the election because (the residents) elected a young female with an African-American husband,” she said.

In mid-July, Miller said negotiations for the police department will resume.

“If there’s something we can do and our auditor is on board, our administration is on board… We’re going to take care of them,” Miller said of the police department.

The department is down by four officers. “The (officers) who have been here taking care of everything, have been stepping it up,” she said.