The following announcement is a paid political advertisement submitted by the candidate. The deadline to submit announcements for the Lawtey election has passed.
For those of you in Lawtey that don’t know me, my name is John Mercier and I am running for Lawtey City Council, Seat 2.
I was born and raised in New England, graduated from a technical high school in 1967, joined the U.S. Air Force in October 1967 and retired in 1988. After retiring, I began my civilian career as a plant manager for an electric motor manufacturing plant, transitioned into the generator business, providing bid and spec plans and estimates, and owned a small business for 10 years before closing it and moving south.
I moved to Lawtey in January 2009 and have been attending council meetings since the beginning of 2010. I have brought many questions and suggestions to our city council such as missing street signs and purchasing a ditch bucket for our backhoe to no avail. I’ve always been told “they would look into it.”
After Hurricane Irma, the city still had not cleaned the ditches which resulted in some serious street flooding. So I contacted my county commissioner and he was able to get the county to come out and get the ditches cleared out. And for the longest time, the city kept telling me that the county couldn’t help.
While in the military, I worked many part-time jobs and most were in the construction industry, which gave me the knowledge to build my own home. Both my military and civilian careers, they have taught me to seek out individuals that can help bring more resources to Lawtey. We have always seemed to be more reactive than proactive and these experiences will help enable us to move forward in the coming years.
It is now time for me to get more involved by becoming part of city council and moving things forward. There is work that needs to be done and can be done for the city and its residents. It’s going to take time, hard work, and cooperation from all elected officials and the citizens. We need to work on making sure our city government is more transparent and our tax money is working to its fullest advantage for us. The city needs to learn to work with county and state officials to get projects funded or find the resources that we might need.
If elected, my primary responsibility and obligation would be to the city and its citizens. Hearing from our constituents regarding their concerns is what the city council members need to be mindful of. Putting my problem solving skills to work and finding the simplest solutions for the betterment of everyone is what I look forward to doing. I look forward to working with everyone for the betterment of our city.
Win or lose, I will still attend monthly council meetings to address issues I believe are in the best interest of the citizens of our city. Others did not come to council meetings prior to running, or ran and lost, or have not shown up unless they had an issue. I will always try and do right for all the citizens.
See everyone at the polls on Election Day, Dec. 6, 2022. Remember that voting is an important right to be exercised and make your wishes known.
