BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — In Brandon Ludwig, Starke has found itself a relentlessly optimistic cheerleader with ideas for fulfilling the city’s potential.
The city’s new community services director grew up down the road in Keystone Heights where he wrote for the Lake Region Monitor during high school and went on to earn his degree in multimedia journalism and communication from the University of North Florida. Graduating around the time COVID emerged killed a lot of job opportunities, so Ludwig unexpectedly began working on Congresswoman Kat Cammack’s election campaign.
While technically the director of the Clay County campaign, Ludwig said he also spent a lot of time working in Starke and Lake Butler. Outreach included organizing events and knocking on doors. He had known Starke primarily from childhood visits like his family’s tradition of dining at the Steakhouse twice a week. The campaign work provided an opportunity to get to know people and their concerns.
“To be honest, it was one of my favorite places to visit during the campaign,” he said.
After Cammack’s win, he served as her press secretary before taking a job as public information officer with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. On the side, he was also working on advertising and tourism development for Keystone Heights.
“Keystone has an absolutely wonderful city manager. Lynn Rutkowski is phenomenal, and it was an honor to get to be a part of that team and help promote events like Nitro Rallycross that were happening back in December and the recent one, MotoSurf,” he said.
Ludwig would help find new ways to promote events, taking advantage of social media to attract bigger audiences.
“We saw without even having to spend money at that time that, organically, we could create that growth,” he said.
While he loved his job, Ludwig became passionate about his side work, so when Starke City Manager Drew Mullins announced earlier this year that he was seeking a community services director, he applied and succeeded.
A first for the city, the position involves event promotion as well as promotion of the city generally, sharing information, engaging citizens to be active and supportive of local business and recreation, and drawing new people to the community, including tourists and new residents.
He began by pushing out more information via the city’s social media outlets and updating the branding to create an online presence that people would want to follow to stay informed. The city has several recurring events, for example, with even more in the works, including the Starke Splash Bash on July 3.
The city, school district and Funtastic Fire Brigade are cooperating on the event, which will take place at the high school football stadium. Beginning that afternoon at 4 p.m., there will be a golf cart parade, water slides, cornhole, food trucks and a car show. The event will culminate in fireworks at 9 that night.
The Great Pumpkin Escape and Christmas on Call Street will take place on schedule, and in addition to the Strawberry Festival, Ludwig said they would like to roll out something new in the spring.
Ludwig said new development is inevitable, and the city needs to be prepared. The city needs “smart development,” or like other areas, it could become overwhelmed. Starke is generating a lot of interest for residential developers, he said, because it is centrally located between Jacksonville and Gainesville but doesn’t have the higher taxes, the traffic or the crowding.
“We’ve had developers reach out with interest, but one of the biggest things that we want to focus on is doing it in a smart way. We’ve had folks reach out about doing a sustainable development and helping do things such as solar energy, which will help take some of the stress off of the city’s power grid as well,” he said.
Ludwig sees potential for housing developments north and south of the city that will allow homes to spread out and preserve the rural character of the community.
Central to whatever project he is working on is the development and strengthening of relationships from the local to the federal level that benefit the city of Starke. That includes being a sounding board for citizen concerns and ideas. For example, he has been approached about a regular food truck event downtown that would draw a crowd and drive more business to local merchants.
He said Starke, in fact, already has assets that could be a bigger draw if people only knew about them, such as Fun Point with its food, music and games. Ludwig said they are also working on attracting a travel softball tournament to the area that would invite 2,000 to 3,000 tourists. They would stay in hotels, shop and dine here, and businesses and government alike would benefit from the revenue.
“We want to do things differently. Starke is really trying to be that city of the future, honestly, and really set ourselves up for success,” he said. “Florida is rapidly growing, and at some point, that is going to hit here. What we’re trying to do is take advantage of it and do it in the right way.”
Improving the quality of life for residents will always be the top priority. He doesn’t agree with the Debbie Downers who see the city as perpetually stuck, and in meeting with local leaders and business owners, he has seen they want good things for the community.
“I know that there’s been this attitude that Bradford County is not going to change, and that Starke is stuck and we’re not going anywhere. Fortunately, we have a city administration that is really focused on that. We’ve got a great city manager, a great city clerk.
“The reason that I left my job, which was not something easy for me to do, is because I see a ton of potential here. I think Starke is very special.”
While other communities may have exhausted their growth potential Starke has room to grow, welcoming development and tourism, he said.
“Starke was once known as the highway to Southern hospitality, and I really want to see that again where we’re pulling people off the truck route because they want to come here. I think more than ever Starke has that chance right now.”
