This introduction to the four candidates competing to fill the unexpired term of abdicated District 3 commissioner Alan Foster begins with an air of quirky uniformity, but a closer look shows an interesting variety of life experiences and community involvement.
On the qualifying forms, all four candidates listed their party affiliation as Republican. Three of the four listed their occupation as retired.
Three of the four live practically within walking distance of each other in the Rockville community on Lake Sinclair, and the fourth lives not all that far away, across the Sparta Highway and on Lake Oconee in the Long Shoals community. Altogether, three men and one woman.
Shona Bales
As a candidate, Bales is the lone woman, the only one living on the Lake Oconee side of the district, and the only one holding a “day job.”
Turning 50 this October, she also is the youngest of the four candidates. However, being a lifelong Putnam resident and a 1992 graduate of Putnam County High School, Bales has also lived here the longest.
Bales started out as a teller at Farmers and Merchants Bank, and 18 years later she is a loan officer in the bank’s Eatonton office. She and her husband, Charlie, who is superintendent of the city’s gas department, have three daughters and one grandchild.
Bales is a past president of the local Pilot Club, which organizes the annual Dairy Festival and currently is serving an unexpired term on the county board of tax assessors.
Why is she running?
“I guess I have a serving heart,” she answered. “I have a passion for community service.”
Bales said she would “love to see downtown thrive” and favors an industry (in the right place) helping the tax base and having job opportunities.
At the same time, with her mother recently retired, Bales is well aware of those on a fixed income “feeling pinched” by the rising prices of gas and groceries.
She wants to see more transparency in government decision-making and “can’t wait to dive into the budget” to cut what she called “unnecessary” spending.
Charles Gray
In Charles Gray’s career, he worked for several large national design-build housing companies.
The last company moved its headquarters from Ohio to Marietta in 2000, but he was sent to Sacramento, Calif., for various roles ranging from construction site manager to project manager of large housing developments, including one of 12,000 3,900-square-foot homes.
It was his expertise in housing and managing large projects that got him into the interface between homeowners and local government. Five times he was elected to three-year terms on the board of his homeowners’ association to represent the HOA’s interests in planning and zoning decisions before the Sacramento city government. The HOA had nearly 5,600 members.
“I’ve got a background of working for a community,” Gray said in a recent interview. “You go to a government meeting, and you don’t hear much from people who are happy,” he said in comments about transparency and government outreach to its citizens. “They just want to know what’s going on. People need to have a lot of trust in their government … I want to link the commission to the community.”
After Gray retired two years ago, he and his wife Carolyn moved from Sacramento to Rockville in Putnam County.
Steve Hersey
For any voter who has been around for the last couple of decades, Steve Hersey’s name probably is the most familiar among the four candidates.
After retiring in 2000 after 29 years as a professor in Emory’s School of Medicine, Hersey and his wife Jane moved to the Rockville property they bought in 1991 and immediately jumped into flower and vegetable gardening, Republican politics, and community organizations ranging from the Oconee Springs Landing Property Owners Association to the Rockville Firefighters Association to the Garden Club of Georgia, where Jane was a past president.
By 2004 Hersey had entered local politics, eventually serving nine years as chairman of the school board and then six more chairing the board of commissioners. The commission chairmanship carried responsibilities for the Eatonton-Putnam Water and Sewer Authority (EPWSA) and the Sinclair Water Authority (SWA).
“These elected positions, together with my community service, have provided me with an in-depth knowledge of government operations and the issues facing Putnam County’s 3rd District,” Hersey said in a prepared statement. “I can go to work on day one.”
Perhaps reflecting the buzz following Foster’s resignation, Hersey too called for “greater transparency … the public deserves to know how and why decisions are made. Backroom deals and secret meetings must end,” he said.
William Vargo
William Vargo grew up on a farm in northwestern Ohio. As a young man, he went to technical school to become an auto mechanic, which morphed into a spin in drag racing and then into the trucking business.
For 25 years Vargo farmed hay, grain, and cattle, but with a work ethic and mechanical skills, he also built, owned, and ran a small regional trucking firm that delivered to Ford assembly plants around Detroit from smaller suppliers in the area. However, the closure of some of Ford’s assembly plants eventually canceled Vargo’s trucking contracts.
Meanwhile, his in-laws had moved south to take jobs in Atlanta and liked the area enough to buy property on Lake Sinclair and commute to Atlanta.
By 2010 the Vargos had joined the move to Georgia and within four years to a small farming operation on Harmony Road in Putnam County.
His wife operated several small businesses, then went to work in the county’s finance department. Two years ago, they moved to Rockville.
“Maintenance? The county does it. I did it. Insurance? Lawyers? Zoning? The county does it. I did it,” he said. “I didn’t go to college. I learned the hard way.”
Respect, fairness, and honesty are the values he would bring to the table, Vargo said.
“You find who treated you fair, and you respect them. You always do,” he added.