Strickland seeking District 4 commission seat

Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, March 26, 2024

There is an old saying that the third time is the charm.

Such is certainly what Andrew Strickland is banking on as he seeks elected office for a third time in recent years.

This time around, Strickland is running for the District 4 seat on the Baldwin County Board of Commissioners. Several years ago, he ran but was unsuccessful. And a number of years, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on Milledgeville City Council.

One of the reasons Strickland said he is seeking public office is because he wants to help create an environment that is conducive to families.

“Take the recreation department for example,” Strickland said in a recent interview with The Union-Recorder. “The recreation department is a place where my daughter plays softball and plays in a traveling league. It’s not just a place to play, but a place where we as adults can come together to teach our kids lessons about perseverance and hard work. Life in general, win, lose or draw.”

He said he strongly believes that is the real definition of a community.

“We have to get back to be a community-centered county,” Strickland said. “I want to see our county become a county where people want to live and work. Our real success hinges on people wanting to be here. I’m one of the many residents that choose to live here and call Baldwin County my home, but I believe we can do better.”

Strickland said it’s nice to see that the county commissioners have taken steps in the right direction to create such environments where community residents can gather.

“I want us to keep building on that and get to a place where we prioritize our creating spaces and environments for our community to flourish together,” Strickland said.

In the 2024 May election, Strickland finds himself in the midst of a three-candidate race. Incumbent Commissioner Henry R. Craig is not seeking re-election to another term. Strickland’s opponents in the upcoming election include Jay Wright Jr., and Carol Ballew, both political newcomers. All three candidates vying for the District 4 commission seat are Republicans.

Strickland is a former member of the Milledgeville Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as former chairman of the Baldwin County Republican Party.

In order to move forward as a county, Strickland said it’s imperative to have solid infrastructure in place.

“We can’t grow if we don’t have our infrastructure right,” he said.

One of the examples he used is the new Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) that was just approved by voters.

“The T-SPLOST referendum passage is going to be great in terms of our infrastructure,” Strickland said. “Eleven cents of every dollar that taxpayers pays goes to discretionary spending and that’s all the stuff that people want. That’s roads, recreation, animal control, etc. All the hot-button issues come out of that 11 cents. So now, if we can only do five miles or six miles a year out of that 11 cents, and provide the other services that we do, then we’ve got a huge problem because roads are expensive.”

Now that T-SPLOST funds can be used for resurfacing roads, it frees up a bunch of money to do other things, he explained.

“It’s not just about roads,” Strickland said. “It’s about being able to allocate the money that we had before for things other than roads.”

Strickland said he supports economic development.

“Again, when this is a place that people want to be, people will move here, and our population increases and our workforce gets better,” Strickland said. “And then we can see more and more families being raised here. Our kids and grandkids will want to stay here because we have something to offer them in the way of good paying jobs and a great community to call home for years and years to come. Those are the things we can control. Whether or not somebody is going to come in here and start some mega industry, it’s very difficult for such to happen because a lot of times you end up chasing your tail and spending a lot of money in the hopes and dreams that somebody is going to actually start a mega industry in your community.”

Strickland works as a board certified paramedic with Air Evac, a medical helicopter company with one of its sites in Milledgeville. He has completed more than 630 patient flights with the company since joining the team seven years ago.

He is married to Gracie Strickland, a registered nurse at the Atrium Health Cancer Center. The couple has two children, a boy, 18, and a daughter, 11.