Dr. Steve Hersey aims to focus on maintaining quality of county services
In the Republican primary race for the chairmanship of the Putnam Board of Commissioners, Steve Hersey sees handling the pressures of inflation as the greatest challenge facing the county government over the next four years.
“The most pressing issue,” he said in a prepared statement, “is to maintain a high level of services – roads, public safety, recreation, etc. – in the face of inflation and, at the same time, control property taxes so that residents and businesses can weather the inflation.”
The method? “Controlling spending.”
With Lee Coleman suspending his campaign last week, and with no Democratic opposition in the November general election, the Republican primary contest between Hersey and District 3 Commissioner Bill Sharp will virtually determine the final outcome.
No stranger to Putnam politics, Hersey chaired the Putnam Board of Education for nine years, followed by chairing the county commission for another six.
He points to the accomplishments of those years.
The time at the board of education came to offer students “exceptional educational opportunities” by stabilizing finances, creating the charter school system, building a new high school, setting up the college and career academy and folding the Head Start program into the school system.
At the county commission, he cites working with the other commissioners to move toward a balanced budget, the negotiation of the service delivery agreement between the county and the city of Eatonton, the passage of the first singlecounty special purpose sales tax for transportation (TSPLOST) and the renewal of the older special purpose sales tax for capital purchases (SPLOST).
“Experience without results is just occupying a seat,” he said.
A native of Buffalo, New York, Hersey earned his undergraduate degree at nearby Cornell University, followed by his PhD at Duke University. His academic career for the next 29 years came as a professor in the Emory University School of Medicine.
On his retirement, he and his wife Jane – the high school sweethearts are coming up on their 59th anniversary next month – settled in the Rockville community in 1999. They settled but did not settle down. Jane took the first master gardening class here and went on to become a president of the Garden Club of Georgia, a board member of the national organization and judge at flower shows. Before politics, Steve helped organize an Oconee Springs property owners association, became active in Kiwanis and (later) a founding member of Putnam General Hospita Foundation.