My Incredible Journey

  The last 3 months have been an incredible Journey. The time I spent with my family making decisions about whether to run or not and how best to do it. The fateful vacation that ended before it even started. Deciding how best to handle Katie’s passing, and whether or not to run for council. The Election Day and the preparation for the runoff. Most importantly realizing how very blessed I have been. 

  I have mentioned on my blog that my main reason for running has been my children. I grew up in Gardendale. I frequently refer to it as the south end of the rainbow. I had a wonderful childhood, and the main reasons were the love of my parents and the wonderful community in which I lived. I want my children to feel the same way when they get my age. Katie began the process for our family by continuing to make me believe I could help make Gardendale a better place. That is one reason I stayed in the race after the wreck. 

  As many of you well know, July 20, 2008 will be a day I will never forget. I kissed my baby for the last time here on this earth. Everything about me changed in that moment. I became humbled, broken, confused, sick, scared, tired, tormented, guilty, and dirty all at the same time. I stood up, walked back a few steps, and began praying. I prayed to my Father that he would take Kate, hold her, love her, protect her, and do all the things that I wasn’t able to do. I thanked Him for the times we had together and for the special relationship we had developed over our 17 years. The very next moment I had the most incredible thing happen to me. God told me that it was okay to let Katie come to her Father. The fear, chaos, and confusion all left me. I knew that Kate was okay and that she was in the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

  It may seem like I am going through the worst possible time in my life. While I cry everyday because I miss my Buggs, I realize how lucky I am to have the many blessings I do have. This community, our friends and family, my dear wife, my sons… all have become so very special to me each and every moment. The appreciation of every minute that I always took for granted. Knowing that so many people genuinely care about our family and our well being has really blown me away. Last but not least, the promise of how very much God loves each one of us has become so evident to me. Every time I get kicked to the ground and feel as though I can’t get up again, He sends someone or something to pick me up. He does this because He promises to never give me anything I can’t handle. Why I am not sure why  any of this happened, I know my Katie is as happy as ever. That knowledge is what gives me the strength to get out of bed every morning 

  I have constantly used this blog to express my council Ideas. Today however, I am going to say something that makes any council talk pale by comparison. I have been given an incredible blessing. I now know how much God loves me. He sent his only son to die a terrible death on the cross for me. He did this so I and each one of you may be washed clean of all of our sins and have an eternity with him in heaven. I no longer have to wonder about the pain God had that day at Calvary. The Bible says the sky grew dark and God wept for three hours. He wept  because Jesus paid the ultimate price for all of us. Having learned about the pain he went through for me makes me more aware of what I owe him. I have always been a rather convenient Christian. I would help people that asked or witness when convenient. That day has come to an end. While I cannot be perfect, I am going to do all I can to show everyone how much God loves us. I am going to praise him through this storm and know that not only will he walk with me but he will carry me when I can’t go any farther. I know this because his word promises that and he has been faithful to me. I will always be available to discuss my heavenly father with anyone that would like. If you do not know what would happen to you if you passed away tonight, there is an answer. All you have to do is reach out to God and ask Jesus to come into your life. Life will not always be easy once you do this but trust me, you will never be alone again.

 

Yours in Christ,

Mike “Buckett” Burkett

238-1272

Preparing for the Run-off....

My worst election nightmare has come true. The thing I dreaded most was a runoff with Gary Morris. Let me start by saying that I think he is a very good person and has been a tremendous benefit for our city the last twelve years. He handles himself with class, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his family. Now let the bashing begin. I am only kidding folks, but I am going to point out a few differences between him and myself.

   I believe the key to making our city thrive again is continued improvements in quality and quantity of services and entertainment in our city. I believe we must have a proactive (I hate that word) approach toward business recruitment in our city, but at the same time we must be fiscally responsible. I believe your councilman must be open to your ideas and available to hear them. Last but not least, I believe we must be passionate about the job of being YOUR councilman.

   We must be able to bring in new businesses to make up for the ones that have left and the lack of revenue we are currently bringing in. I stated six weeks ago that the key to this is hiring a city recruiter/planner that gets paid by the job he does. We currently have a part time person doing this and we have lost 13 % of our businesses in the last 18 months. Businesses are not going to knock our door down to come here. We have the reputation of not being a friendly city to work with. The Inspection department is considered to be the wicked witch of the south. These things cannot be fixed overnight, but at the same time we cant wait four years to fix them either

   Fiscally responsible. Think about this for a moment. What would happen to Gardendale if Wal-mart left tomorrow? How would we survive? Would the stores that are now in that area survive without it? Could we find someone to replace it? I will not try to answer this for you, but this is the position we as a city are in right now. My worry is that we would have to use all of our reserves just to maintain current services with a growing population. We have not been successful in recent months in recruitment of businesses so there is no reason to think this will change. That would bring us to the dreaded tax that we all despise.

   We have hampered ourselves by having a horrible attitude within the Inspections Department. The city is following trucks around to see where they are going, trying to stop teenagers from cutting grass, badgering builders with every kind of permit known to man to pick up $35.00. The question that I have is this: how many small businesses have we run off by doing this? How many companies turn a deaf ear to the city because of our reputation of being hard to work with? This began under our current councilman and it must stop. I will do everything in my power to help the inspection department start improving our reputation in the city and beyond.

   In my opinion, the biggest weakness that Mr. Morris has is that he has made decisions without getting input from the people he represents. I saw him several times during the last election and not once since. I called him on the phone and told him about a situation with the sewage overflowing at the baseball field and was put off to the mayor. This will not be the case if I am elected. I will handle all I can, explain what I cannot and be available to you at all times.

   I have repeatedly talked about passion in my blog posts and during campaigning. This is one of the reasons I believe term limits are good. A new candidate is going to hit the ground running and work hard to make things work, especially if he has a vested interest. I am a type-A personality and I cannot stand the thought of failure. I will give Gardendale my all for at most two terms and then step aside and let someone else carry the fire. Mr. Morris would be starting his fourth term as a councilman and in my opinion some of that fire has dwindled. That would be only natural after 12 years.

   This race will decide if we are going to have a majority of new faces or if the old regime stays intact. I ask you, the residents of ward 2, to give me the opportunity to work with the new council to return our city to its past glory. Teamwork is going to be very important. New ideas and the fire to accomplish goals will be my priority. Thank you very much for your support in the election

 Mike “Buckett” Burkett