Anthony Simmons, after 32 years as a Bulloch County commissioner, is again seeking re-election to another four-year term in Seat 1-B. As a Democrat, he is facing a challenge from Republican candidate Spencer Johnson. Early voting is now well underway toward the Nov. 3 general election.

“I’m seeking to serve because I want to continue to see Statesboro and Bulloch County grow in a good and reasonable way for the citizens,” Simmons said last week. “I’ve been here for a long time and I’ve seen Statesboro go through several growth spurts, which were good. I want to be able to see this one through also.”

Both candidates were asked questions about the same topics, along with the basic, “Why are you running?” and biographical background in separate interviews.

A lifelong Bulloch resident, Simmons, 70, is retired from a career as a social worker. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State University and a master’s from Nova Southern University.

He and Joyce Simmons, married 44 years, have a son and a daughter and four grandchildren. Anthony Simmons is a deacon at Thomas Grove Baptist Church. Currently he also serves on the board of the Action Pact community action agency and represents the county on the Coastal Regional Commission.

Speaking of those “several growth spurts” the county has been through, Simmons noted that he was on board for the original development of Gateway Industrial Park, home of Briggs & Stratton, the Wal-Mart Distribution Center and Great Dane Trailers.

“I’ve seen that,” he said. “Cell towers came through and that was a big issue, and I’ve seen the solar panels come through, that was a big issue and it turned out all right. Now – which is a big issue, and we’ll get to that later – we’re talking about data centers.”

He asserts that the boards of commissioners over the years, while not perfect, have “looked out for the citizens, and … done a pretty good job” protecting natural resources and farmland.

“And Statesboro and Bulloch County continue to grow and be a wonderful place to live, and I want to be part of it, and I love serving the citizens,” Simmons said.

Board’s accomplishments

As for recent county accomplishments, the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant arrived in the region, and Bulloch County has “come through that” and “gotten that kind of settled with the well systems,” he observed.

“We’ve gotten money from the governor to bring in infrastructure to be put out on Highway 67 and I-16,” he said. “We’re getting ready, along with the city, to open up Kroger. ...”

The Kroger shopping center, on Cypress Lake Road just inside the bypass, is far from actually opening yet, but officials did have a ceremonial groundbreaking slated for this week.

“We’ve brought in industry that we didn’t have,” said Simmons. “We just continue to grow.

“And let me say this, I don’t want to say ‘I,’ I always say ‘the board,’ because I cannot do anything without the help of the board,” he added. “There are six other men on this board besides me. I can have a good idea, but it will fall if I can’t convince the other members to chime in. It’s never ‘I’; it’s always the board.”

Taxes vs. services

Both candidates were asked how they would balance taxpayers’ desire for lower taxes with needs and demand for county services.

“It’s like this. In my household, I have a budget, and each year things change. …,” Simmons said. “I would love for it to stay the same, but things happen.

“As people move into this county, the Board of Commissioners are charged with keeping our citizens safe,” he continued. “Fire engines, sheriff’s patrol cars, these things are almost double the cost of when I first became a commissioner. But these things we just cannot afford to not buy.”

So, he identifies personnel and equipment for public safety as a top priority.

“What I always say is … if you pick up that phone and call EMS, you don’t want to hear, ‘Well, we don’t have the manpower,’ or ‘We don’t have the equipment to come out to your house,’ ‘We don’t have the infrastructure to bring that (ambulance) down your road.’”

That makes having passable roads also a priority, he added.

“These are essential things that we have to do,” Simmons said. “Now, I do believe that as the industries come in, yes, they need to pay their fair share. I don’t want to put it all on the backs of the taxpayers that are here.”

But public safety services are not the only essentials, in his view.

“You know, people talk about wanting to cut from the Recreation Department. But listen, what’s the use of having a county the size that we have and we don’t have anything for the citizens to do? When people come to move into Bulloch County, that’s one of the things that they look at also, you know, ‘What kind of recreation you got?’”

He called the Ag Arena and Splash in the Boro “wonderful places” and said these are two facilities that “make the county money that offsets taxes.”

“And I know we get kicked in the teeth a lot about, ‘Well, we’ve got to keep taxes down.’ I think we still have one of the lowest tax millage rates around,” Simmons said. “I ain’t moving out of Bulloch County.”

Roads, paved & dirt

What about road paving and maintenance? How should the county prioritize projects?

“Bulloch County is the king of dirt roads, and … we’ve recently rewrote how we’re going to rate roads to be paved. …,” Simmons said. “We’ve enlisted a company now that will actually go out and negotiate right of way, which has been a great tool for us from the way it used to be done.”

The new paving guidelines, drafted by county staff and adopted by commissioners, put greater weight on an evaluation of traffic needs and road conditions, instead of the traditional petition to sign up residents and property owners along the route.

Simmons said he has been around long enough to see a road being held up from paving because one citizen, who owned “a whole chunk of the right of way,” said, in effect, “I used to climb that tree, and I’m not going to give up this part.”

Some roads, he acknowledged, have been petitioned for repaving for more than 20 years without getting paved.

“And we do have the right to condemn, but understand, it’s not easy doing that,” Simmons said.

Alas, data centers …

“I don’t know everything about data centers; I will be the first to tell you that. The board doesn’t know everything about data centers,” Simmons said. “We are right now trying to figure out some rules and regulations, if a data center came looking for us to set up.”

The commissioners have continued a moratorium on data centers through Dec. 31. Right now, none is planned or seeking a permit in the county’s jurisdiction, he noted.

“But when it comes, we want to be ready to make sure that it doesn’t affect our citizens, doesn’t affect our groundwater, doesn’t affect our power, and to that purpose our chairman came up with the idea, approached us as a board with it, that each commissioner chose three citizens to put on this committee.”

So if all of the citizens nominated by commissioners actually serve, a 21-member committee will study the topic and report back to the elected board. Simmons said they should be “citizens who are open-minded and not thoroughly opposed to data centers but who are willing to listen and go on field trips and then come back to the board with their suggestions.”

“Now, naturally we’ll have the final say-so on the rule structure, but when they come back, nobody can say we did not have any citizens’ input,” he said.