Mayor Fuller: In his own words

Staff
Published: July 26, 2008

Here are Opelika Mayor Gary fuller’s answers to two questions posed by the Opelika-Auburn News. Fuller faces challenger Rainer Meadows in the Aug. 26 municipal election.

What do you consider to be the greatest short-term challenge for the city of Opelika?

Opelika City Schools, public safety and job growth are Opelika’s short-tem challenges.  The greatest threat to all three of these concerns has to be our nation’s uncertain economy.  We’ve all experienced the high cost of gasoline, food and other necessities.  Our paychecks just don’t go as far today as they did just a few short months ago.  Thank goodness we’ve added some 1500 new high paying jobs to Opelika’s economy the past four years with a capital investment of over $300 million dollars.  This benefits our schools as well as our police and fire departments.  My FY 09 budget calls for a 20% increase in funding for Opelika City Schools which raises their appropriation from $2.5 to $3 million.  It is more important than ever for Opelika to have a Mayor who can continue to recruit new jobs that will help our citizens and our city through tough economic times.

What do you consider to be the greatest long-term challenge for the city of Opelika?

While serving on the city council, I realized that the largest factor contributing to poor academic performance in our schools is poverty.  If we are going to provide ALL of our students a world-class education we have to raise the standard of living for Opelika’s families.  That’s why I’ve focused so intensely on recruiting new industry and high paying jobs to our city.  It also means we must have better long range planning regarding our infrastructure and making sure we have sufficient capacity to handle the jobs of tomorrow.  We have to not only maintain our existing roads and streets, but build new roads, waste water treatment facilities, parks, schools and recreation facilities.  One of the reasons I started the “20 under 40” program three years ago was to train, coach and engage future leaders in shaping what they want Opelika to be 20 or 30 years from now.