Damian Carr wants to see a few more things completed if he is reelected to represent Ward 3 on the Tallassee City Council. He wants to see continued infrastructure improvements and growth, especially downtown.
“Infrastructure projects are going good right now,” Carr said. “It’s come a long way. We have done some great things in downtown, with street paving projects and gas projects. It’s all a great thing and a good foundation to build from.”
Carr, who announced his bid for reelection, grew up in Tallassee and is a 1991 graduate of Tallassee High School. He has been around long enough to understand what interests the people. Carr sees the improvements and things at Tallassee City Schools as reasons for people to be interested in moving to and locating businesses in Tallassee.
“I don’t know who wouldn’t want to move here,” Carr said. “Everybody should be interested in Tallassee with all that we have going on.”
Carr wants to work to figure out how to get more businesses downtown and in east Tallassee.
“It will help create a reason for people to be here,” Carr said.
At the same time he still has unaccomplished goals.
“We have seen some of the dilapidated buildings in Ward 3 torn down thanks to grants,” Carr said. “We need more taken down to clean up the Jordanville area.”
Carr understands many of the issues in the Jordanville community surround safety. Carr believes the Tallassee Police Department is doing a good job with patrols but is hampered at times.
“We have people that don’t want to speak to the police,” Carr said. “It is difficult for them to investigate things if no one says anything. I want to help and encourage people to say something to the police if they see something. They can’t do their jobs without the information.”
Carr understands for Tallassee to grow, it first must help small businesses. He said the main issue with large businesses is they don’t like the number of rentals in town.
“It’s not necessarily popular, but we have to get more people owning the place they live in,” Carr said. “It helps with recruiting businesses and helps with community pride. If it belongs to them, they will do a better job keeping it up.”
The tenured councilmember wants to increase quality of life for citizens through partnerships. Carr said he helped partner the city with the Elmore County Commission to help fund a small park in Jordanville on property owned by God's Congregational Holiness Church. Just a few years prior the property had an abandoned house on it.
“They city can't do it all,” Carr said. “We have to partner with some groups. We also can partner with companies and look for more grants.”
Carr said the city and its industrial development board do a good job of recruiting companies to Tallassee, but there is always room for improvement.
“We still need to bring more companies and jobs here,” Carr said. “We need to get more of our people to work.”
The municipal election is set for Aug. 26.