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EDITOR’S NOTE: The LaGrange Daily News is doing a series to help voters get to know the candidates for the upcoming local elections on May 21. Today we are writing about the Troup County Board of Commissioners District 3 seat.

Three candidates, Ashley Adams, Rex Scott and T C Nixon are challenging incumbent Lewis Davis for the Republican nomination for the District 3 seat. No Democratic party candidates qualified for the election.

Adams is a former Troup County School Board member. She currently works as a clinical mental health counselor, working with local nonprofits, private practices and other agencies.

Scott served for 25 years with the Troup County Fire Department, retiring with the rank of captain. He is currently employed by Synergy Security Services which provides security services for colleges, governments and businesses throughout the southeast.

Nixon is a retired law enforcement officer of just over 20 years. He currently works as a supervising agent for Globe Life Liberty National.

Davis is finishing up his second term as commissioner having been first elected in 2016. He has run a local contracting business for about 25 and also owns a small beef cattle farm.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RUN?

Adams said her love for Troup County drives her to public service.

“I was born and raised right here in Troup County. This town means a whole lot to me. My grandparents purchased the land that I am able and honored to live on. There are just small-town values that I just treasure and they’re the same values that that my parents and my grandparents treasured, as well as just the friends and members of the community that I have grown so close to,” Adams said.

Adams said her family moved to Alabama to take a job with a large paper mill but they found they missed LaGrange and Troup County and moved back.

“I had so many connections from growing up right here in our county, and we wanted to get back to friends and family that I’ve known my whole life,” she said.

Scott said he was inspired to run to help improve public safety.

“Working with the county for years and things like that, one of my things is public safety. I’ve always tried to improve the level of service that we can give to the citizens and that’s always been high on my priorities when I was there,” Scott said.

“As we grow in the community, I’m a little concerned with the amount of call volume that is going up and we’re not really upping our staffing. I understand that that costs money, but I just want to get in there and get involved and see with the growth, are we doing sustainable growth? Where are we falling short and what we can improve on?” he said.

Similarly, Nixon said public safety concerns inspired him to run for commissioner.

“Mainly, I just saw how the public safety has been treated in our county and some of the issues we’ve seen,” Nixon said. “I just felt that I wanted to improve the way of life here.”

Davis said his father and wanting to serve the community inspired him to get into local government.

“Ever since I was little, my father was involved in politics. He served on the Troup County Board of Commissioners. That’s what sparked my interest. That’s what made me enjoy politics. I’ve always enjoyed politics, but just living in a community and seeing the benefit of serving the community and trying to make it a better place. That’s really what inspired me to do it and why I want to do it,” Davis said.

WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS FOR EVALUATING HOW TO SPEND TAXPAYER MONEY?

Adams said understanding the community is the most important thing when making decisions as a commissioner.

“I think you just have to you have to understand what the community is looking for. What matters most to the community, and evaluate each purchase or each decision based on those big ideas that the community is interested in,” Adams said.

“I’m big on public safety, so roads are a main concern of mine. There are some roads that I’d like to see a little bit wider on the shoulders and anything to improve on that side. Of course, I would be willing to spend on that through SPLOST.

He said he would also be willing to spend on equipment for public safety.

“Once we get that part done and those officers and firefighters all have the equipment that they need to do their job, I lean toward more on the recreational side maybe and adding those,” Scott said.

Nixon said he would first determine the need before spending any money.

“I would determine exactly what our money needs to be spent on. What’s best for the county? What works best for the citizens of our county and what will work best for the employees that work for the county?” Nixon said.

Davis said his initial evaluations are to judge worthiness and affordability.

“The first thing I always look at when you’re looking at spending money, is it worthy of doing. That’s one of the main things and then the next thing is and probably more important, how are we going to pay for it?” Davis said.

“I think we have been very fortunate over the past eight years. When we do spend money on new projects, we have been able to do so thanks to SPLOST and grants and things like that. We’ve been able to do projects to help with emergency service workers help with our fire and sheriff’s department and not affect our general fund,” Davis said. “That’s always important because if you’re not careful, you will be affecting people’s tax dollars and you’ll have to go up on the millage rate.”

Davis said he is proud to have been able to reduce the millage rate twice during his two terms.

“I don’t think you will find another group of commissioners in recent history that’s done it one time. We were able to do it two times,” Davis said.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SANITATION TURNOVER?

Adams said the county’s decision to privatize sanitation has been a disaster.

“I think it’s been a complete disaster. Unfortunately, I don’t think that that Martin Environmental, knew what they were taking on. I think they just got in over their heads. So I don’t think we chose the right direction on that. I think we’ve got a big a clean-up [needed], no pun intended, in that department,” Adams said.

Scott said trash has been an issue for many years, even dating back to when he started with the fire department.

He said he understands the costs of hauling trash to landfills and the need for someone to run the convenience centers, but he didn’t understand why the county pushed so much for curbside sanitation.

“I want to be a voice for the people,” Scott said, noting a large contingent in the county were vehemently against the decision. “To me personally, I didn’t understand the big push on it for curbside,” Scott said.

“The way it was implemented, the way it was kind of forced out, that’s not my style,” Scott said.

Nixon said the consensus he has gotten is that there is a large majority of people who are still upset with the sanitation change.

“I just felt that it was handled a little bit Improperly. People in the county should have been listened to a little bit more about it,” Nixon said.

Davis said he understands the increasing cost of sanitation and knew something had to be done, but he is a representative of his district so he voted against the sanitation change.

“People don’t realize how much the staff and the commissioners put into the problem with trash. We realized that it was a serious problem because of the cost and how things were going. The cost was just going up. We knew there was a problem. But I also knew that my district was opposed to curbside sanitation,” Davis said.

“I told the commissioners privately and publicly that I could not support curbside pickup because I felt like the majority of my district was opposed to it,” Davis said. ”I did vote against it. As time has gone on, there’s still a lot of people who are very unhappy with it but there’s also a whole lot of people that are okay with it. They seem to see some benefits to it, but as a general rule, people don’t like change.”

“They don’t like change and trash was one of the tangible things that the people in the unincorporated area felt like that they could see that they were receiving for their tax dollars and it really bothered them when that system was changed,” Davis said.