Preston Tutt III, 27, is running for Seat 1-B on the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners against an incumbent who has served on the board since three years before Tutt was born, Commissioner Anthony Simmons.

Tutt, a resident of Bulloch County since coming to Georgia Southern University as a student a decade ago, is running as a Republican but says he first looked into becoming an independent candidate. Simmons, 66, is running as a Democrat, and always has. 

District 1, the majority-minority district with two commission seats, contains roughly one-third of the county’s population. Its registered voters will choose between Tutt and Simmons in the Nov. 8 general election, for which in-person early voting begins Monday.

“You know I look at what’s happening, and if you want to see change you should be that change or invoke change, and I think running for County Commission, I’ll be somebody who’ll be committed to Bulloch County,” Tutt said in an interview last week.

“Unlike my opponent – I’ve heard from a lot of people he only comes around, around election time; you’ve got to really search to find him – I want to be somebody who’s going to be there, present, an ear, you know, a servant of the people,” he continued.

Originally from Harlem, Georgia, a small town near Augusta, Tutt now resides in the city limits of Portal. 

He works full-time as assistant manager of the O’Reilly Auto Parts store on Northside Drive in Statesboro. He came to Georgia Southern to study music, but has also studied construction, pursuing these two quite different subjects as dual majors, he said. Taking classes on and off while working to earn money to further his studies – and avoid going into debt, he said – he remains a few credits short of a degree, but said he hopes to complete through online courses, beginning in January.

In the past he held two jobs, one with O’Reilly and the other helping his father, a Columbia County-based contractor, with demolition work.

Asked about involvement in organizations, Tutt noted that he is a member of the Portal Heritage Society, whose big event, the Turpentine Festival, was recently rescheduled to Oct. 29. He has recently been attending church at Aaron Worship Center.

Tutt is not married, but he has a fiancée. 

The newspaper asked both candidates about two issues: growth and taxes. These have been overarching concerns for Bulloch officials since soaring real estate prices pushed property tax assessments higher and Hyundai Motor Group announced plans for a massive new factory in neighboring Bryan County.

‘Smart growth’

“I think we just need to have smart growth and planned growth,” Tutt said.  “I think we need to have the infrastructure to handle that growth because I’ve seen what bad growth looks like.”

As an example, he said there is a small road in Augusta that hosts as much business as does four- and five-lane U.S. Highway 301 from Statesboro toward Claxton but remains just a two-lane road.

“They didn’t prepare for the growth,” Tutt said.  “I think we need to get our roads, bolster our infrastructure to where they’ll be able to handle it, in addition to the regular population. We don’t need semis going down a dirt road or a small road like the size of some you’d find in Portal or even down on the south end of the county.”

So, Bulloch County needs to get ready for the growth that is coming and make it “staged and planned growth” with attention to where it goes, he said.

While many people say they don’t want a factory in their backyard and he doesn’t want that for them either, Tutt said, he does hear from other Bulloch County residents, including in the Portal area, that they would like more businesses and jobs.

“If a business wants to come in, even up toward the north end of the county – I know it’s pretty quiet out there and a lot of people are looking for job opportunities up there – that’s an option we could keep open,” he said.

Asked about taxes

Growth was also the heart of his answer on taxes, the question being whether more of a tax rate rollback might be possible or an increase necessary instead to serve a growing population. He said Bulloch County should find a way to derive revenue from the Hyundai plant and new businesses that locate here.

“If think if we continue our efforts there and we can get revenue from those businesses, like tax revenue, we’ll be able to put that into projects and services, like first-responders, (fire, medical), police, and be able to help those people. If we do have to increase taxes, I don’t think it would be that much, if those businesses do come into Bulloch County.”

He said he has some Republican views and also some Democrat views, thinking neither side “100 percent right.” Qualifying as a Republican was relatively simple, compared to running as an independent, which would have required gathering a petition. He has spoken at a Republican forum and attended local GOP breakfasts.

“Instead of kicking the can down the road, I think it’s just going to be inevitable that the change is going to come to Bulloch County, and we’re going to need new ideas, smart people at the helm,” Tutt said. “I think the commissioners have done a good job. I’d like to be a member of that board just so I can play my part and see Bulloch County through this change of time.”