County Commission | The Magazine August 2017 | Page 5

resources necessary to provide the
honest with you: I am humbled.
local road and bridge infrastructure
This hasn’t been “my year” – it has
that can meet the needs of our
been yours.
citizens and our economy.
Unlike a turnaround specialist
For my part, I can’t wait for
brought in to shake up a struggling
football season to kick off. But I
organization, I have had the
am reminded that sometimes the
immense privilege of serving as
memorable, game-changing plays
your president at a time when
happen a down or two before anyone county government already had
crosses the goal line. We covered
positive momentum.
some yardage
The way
the hard way I went to bed that night with I look at
this year.
it, my job
the knowledge that our
We moved
has been to
friends
and
neighbors
had
the chains,
keep that
and we get
publicly stated that they trust momentum
to keep our
going and
county government – you build on it
offense on
and me and all the many
the field.
wherever
It might essential public services that possible. I
be tempting
hope you
counties provide every day. agree that
to look
at those
we have
accomplishments and puff my chest
succeeded in that. What’s
out with pride, but to be brutally
more, I am fully confident that
President-Elect Steve McKinnon is
ready to step forward and lead us
through the 2017-18 year.
While my term of office is
ending, my commitment to you
and this Association is not. I plan to
keep going as a past president who is
an actively engaged member of the
Board of Directors.
The drive to improve and
protect county government did not
start with me. It didn’t start with
my predecessor, Ray Long, or his
predecessor, Merceria Ludgood. For
a starting point, look no further
than July 9, 1929 – the day this
Association was officially established.
We are part of something much
bigger than you or me, bigger than
our accomplishments this year. The
one voice of county government
has kept going for 88 years, and I
trust it will keep going long after the
singular accomplishments of this
year are in the rear-view mirror. n
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