Three Candidates Introduce Themselves

Clinton Currie is seeking the District 1, Post 1, City Council seat.

Mr. Currie grew up in Snellville. He joined the Marine Corps after graduating from high school. After he left the Marines, he moved to Houston, Texas where he attended trade school for commercial diving, underwater welding, industrial radiography and non destructive testing.

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He started working for a pipeline company out of Louisiana on a diving vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. He continued his inspection career with a company out of Marietta, where he traveled the U.S. inspecting the structural integrity of pressure vessels in the pulp and paper, petro chemical and nuclear power facilities.

Mr. Currie was working in an oil refinery in Yorktown, Va. during the 2008 economic downturn and decided to come back home and stay to help his family’s business in Monticello.

Clinton is married to Amanda Currie and together have three children, Emma, 9, John 7, and Jacob 1.

Mr. Currie spends any extra time away from work with his family and is concentrating his extra efforts with his children’s education.

He said he wants to serve on City Council to create a better community in which to raise his family. He said he kept hearing people complain, and thought he would see what he can do to make things better.

Monticello’s Mayor Pro Tem, Russell Gross, has announced his candidacy for City Council, District 2, Post 1.

Mr. Gross, a resident of College Street in Monticello for more than 11 years, is a descendent of the Marchman family who first settled in Monticello in 1814. Born in Savannah on Frebruary 2, 1941, he moved back to his ancestral home from Conyers in 2000.

Mr. Gross has two daughters, Beth and Anne, and two grandchildren, Emily and Evan.

Although Mr. gross worked in hotel management enterprises in both Macon and Atlanta and operated a number of family-owned restaurants before his retirement, he has been active in local community economic development activity for many years.

He was previously executive director of the Better Business Bureau of Coastal Georgia, the federal fund coordinator for the City of Macon and the deputy personnel director for the City of Savannah.

Mr. Gross was a recipient of the Liberty Bell Award presented by the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce given in recognition of his superior civic service to the people of Georgia’s First Capital City. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Oglethorpe Foundation and is the former national chairman of the Society of the Constitution. He was a blood donor and recruitment director for the southeastern Red Cross Blood Center, a past president of the Cordele Jaycees, and the founding president of Alpha Tau Omega National Society Fraternity at Georgia Southern University which is his Alma matta.

Mr. Gross continues his record of public service as a member of the Board of Directors of the Jasper County Health Department and as the current president of the Jasper County Chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons.

Mr. Gross underscores his commitment to the City of Monticello by pointing to his record of strong support for those measures which he feels will improve the quality of life for all the people of our community.

“I will continue and intensify my work that Jasper Memorial Hospital stays in Monticello. The loss of this important institution in our city, he said would be a huge set back to the quality of life of all our citizens and would work in a immense harm to the future growth of our town. We simply cannot afford to lose the hospital and I will do all in my power not only to keep it in Monticello but to help it improve its services to all of our people.”

“No one can live in Monticello he continues without recognizing that the high cost of Monticello’s utilities bills is completely out of whack with reality. These costs must be brought under control so that all of our people, without regard to where they live in our city, will receive fair services from the city, fairly provided, and at a fair price.”

Mr. Gross emphasizes his deep commitment to economic development in the city of Monticello as a means to the enhancement of the quality of life for those who now call the city home but also for the future generations who look to us to create the conditions for a viable and sustainable economy in our town.

“It is not enough,” he said, “to have more jobs in Monticello. We have to put in place now policies and initiatives which will reap a balance economic future for our city, one which produce on a sustained basis economic opportunities for our young people. We have to take strong steps now to guarantee a future which will keep our young people in their hometown and put a halt to the flood of talent and energy flowing from Monticello to other urban centers like Macon and Atlanta.

“The time of doing this has long passed, and keeping our young people in our community has to be a prime priority of city government.”

“I am asking that the people of this city to put me in as City Councilman so that I can continue to be an important member of the team which will work to ensure a strong future for the city which we all love.”

Martha “Mollie” Pompey is a native of Monticello, who left after graduation to join the Air Force.

While serving in the military, she met and married Taylor F. Pompey, and had three sons, Francis, a recent graduate of Fort Valley State University, Ra’Shead, a recent graduate of Georgia Southern University, and Keri, a current sophomore at Georgia College & State University. She currently holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a concentration in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Georgia College & State University, and an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) from Central Georgia Technical College, where she is currently employed as a Helpdesk Specialist.

“I come to you bound by my faith, with genuine respect and love for our community, with the best hope for redirecting our community on a more humane, just and peaceful course. I am not a perfect person, yet I have invested faith, hope and trust that our will be an excellent candidate to represent us as Mayor Pro Tem. I hope I have and will continue to send you a signal that I care. I pledge my best to not let you down,” said Mrs. Pompey.

“Our high cost of utility bills and slow economic growth is one of the major issues for our community. I will work side-by-side with the Economic Development Authority, Downtown Development Authority, and the leaders of this great state to bring growth. This growth will be the sustenance needed to provide a better quality of life for us all. As there is grant money out there to be had, I want Monticello to have its piece of the pie. With more grants provided and businesses coming to us, this will help lower the rising cost of utilities.

“I would like to see more of the empty historical homes in the city be allowed to be commercial businesses. Not only will this help with the tax base it will allow these homes to be occupied instead of standing empty. If these homes are allowed to become businesses there is grant money that can be used to restore them to their grandeur and provided a source of beautification and pride for our town.

“Based on the desire for economic growth, the need to support Jasper Memorial Hospital (JMH) is crucial. Without this medical facility, the opportunity for growth would become non-existent. Major industry will not even consider us as a community in which to locate their facility; therefore we must support the continuation and upgrade of JMH.

“The past two or three years the city has not provided any support to Uncle Remus Library. I would like to see this changed. Our library remains a progressive facility that allows for the educational enhancement of all the citizens of Monticello. It allows the students who do not have access to the internet an excellent and safe place to advance their education.

It has allowed many of our elderly citizens to become familiar with the information highway called the World Wide Web (WWW). Throughout the past four years, I have tried to offer leadership to our community. If in my high moments, I have done some good, offered some service, shed some light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody, then the past four years has not been in vain. For me as a current member of our city government, the pain is and has often been intense. But I have tried to smile through the tears and hurt and keep moving with the faith and belief that there is a brighter side somewhere.

This is our community, and as long as we stay together no matter how many times life knocks us down we cannot lose. This is why I want to make Monticello a more inviting place to live. And make sure that it stays that way. For the past four years I have been a part of helping to make Monticello move forward. I would like to take the next four years to help take Monticello to another higher and better level.

To help change the lives of people in our community is one of the reasons why I seek the position of Mayor Pro Tem. I am proud to announce to anyone who asks that I was born, reared, and educated in Monticello, Georgia. I want to work for everyone in the community and Jasper County. I have and always will provide you with truth and honesty. It is due to this pride in my hometown that I know, as your Mayor Pro Tem, I can, shall, have been, and will continue to be an effective voice for us all.

This campaign has taught me much; that leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.