Back to the issues...

My last blog post mentioned that I have decided to stay in the race for city council. And really, it didn’t take me very long to come to this decision. I received numerous calls and e-mails from family and friends reminding me that my children wanted me to run (especially Katie, our daughter who passed away in an automobile wreck on July 20^th). She was proud of me for wanting to try to make things better. Needless to say, I am going to stay in the race and try to convince you to let me serve you. With that being said, lets move on to the issues:

   There have been many thoughts surrounding the Caufield Square issue. This topic has been on the minds of Gardendale citizens since the last election. The current Council and Mayor made a big deal about getting this huge shopping complex deal done, conveniently releasing the so-called plans the week of the election. And as we all have witnessed, they abandoned those plans once re-elected, and the whole deal fell through. The fact that the Caufield Square issue was handled in this fashion was a key reason for me deciding to run for council in my ward. I can’t say I will never make a mistake, but I will be bold enough to stand behind the decisions I make and the words that I say.

   The city was counting on the revenue the shopping center would bring in. The tax dollars would have gone a long way toward making significant improvements in services and opportunities in our city. I believe, however, that a big time mall is not necessarily what we need. I believe we need to fill the many vacant commercial spaces, now posting “for lease” signs in their windows, with legitimate businesses and “open for business” signs. How do we go about doing this? My belief is that we need two things to make this happen:

    First, we need to hire a full-time, top-notch business recruiter - someone that goes out and shares the many attributes our great city has to offer them. Businesses today are not going to just show up and bring in tax dollars. We must convince them to come to our city without having to give away the kitchen sink in order to get them. Gardendale has many reasons for businesses to locate here, and we must make that apparent.

    Secondly, we must contract the services of a real city planner or engineer. Gardendale must not bring in too much too fast. The services and traffic flow of the city must be able to accommodate the businesses we bring in. A planner would keep us from having traffic jams around the schools every weekday morning and make it where you can get from church to the restaurants on Sunday afternoons. Uncontrolled growth could be just as devastating as losing tax dollars.

  Please do not hold the fact that I considered not running after last weekend against me. I wanted to step back and re-evaluate everything about my life, not just my council run. I will give you all that I have, I will never vote my ideals over your wishes, I will always be available to you, and I will not stay in office more than 2 terms.

 Thank You for Your Consideration,

Mike “Buckett” Burkett