Polk to pick new District 3 member
Only a trio of candidates are now seeking to be chosen as the next Polk County commissioner to take over the remaining term for the District 3 seat.
Larry Reynolds, Hal Floyd and Tim Yarbrough are the ones remaining out of an original five who sought the position, after two decided to drop out of consideration for the seat.
Previously, Ken Suffridge decided that he was going to give up on the idea of serving after discussions with family and friends about whether he should, since he had already retired from politics with the decision to not run for a second term as Aragon’s mayor.
Edwin Britt, who also applied for consideration as a candidate for the District 3 seat, decided just before having to go before the Commission for a Q&A session on Oct. 9 that he would drop out as well.
That left Floyd, Reynolds and Yarbrough to take questions from Assistant County Manager Barry Akinson, who for a second time acted as moderator as the rest of the board sat in the audience and listened in.
‘I was born and raised in Rockmart, went to elementary school in Rockmart and graduated from Rockmart High School.’
Larry Reynolds Polk County commissioner
candidate ‘It isn’t a popular time to be a commissioner.’
Tim Yarbrough Polk County commissioner
candidate
Floyd was t he f i rst plant manager at Tiptop Poultry in Rockmart, and served up until the beginning of August on the Polk County Board of Education.
He resigned from his position back before the start of the school year — and replaced by Judy Wiggins — in the District 6 seat for the Board of Education.
He is a longtime resident of Rockmart after he moved to the area to open the Tiptop plant in the late 1980s, ran for the Board of Education seat on a campaign of both managerial and budgetary experiences, and on providing more transparent government for local residents to better understand the decisions made by the school board.
Reynolds, who previously held the seat he seeks to be the replacement for from 2009 through 2012, looks to return to the county commission following his loss to gain the seat back from former commissioner Stefanie Drake Burford in 2016.
His hopes are that if given a chance to serve again, he might bring better communication between all the commissioners on the board.
Reynolds, a U.S. Navy veteran who served after graduating from Rockmart High School until January 1965, went to work at 21 at Ford Motor Co.’s Atlanta assembly plant for 40 years, and has been retired for more than 20 years.
“I was born and raised in Rockmart, went to elementary school in Rockmart and graduated from Rockmart High School,” he said.
His hopes are that if selected as a commissioner, he can do more to help the community he loves.
Local resident Tim Yarbrough is hoping his credentials and opinions about local issues will help him get selected.
Yarbrough, who started out as a chemist at Bekaert Steel in Rome and later went into full management at the facility for 22 years, now is finishing up his career at Angelica.
He stepped up as a candidate for the seat in order to help solves several issues the commission has faced over the past year.
The trio all provided varying answers to the same list asked of candidates who sought the District 1 seat during a question and answer session held in August which resulted in the selection of Jose Iglesias to serve in the position.
All provided different reasons when asked why they wished to serve the county, with Reynolds pointing to previous experience and his dedication to fact- finding without any agenda as his main impetus to take part.
Floyd had similar reasons for seeking the seat as well, but pointed to a desire to “help with current problems and future planning” in the county as it grows in the years ahead.
“It isn’t a popular time to be a commissioner,” Yarbrough said when given the chance to answer. He added that with a variety of problems faced by Polk County — from questions over the landfill to whether paid firefighters should be hired to serve — as just one of many he hopes to help solve if selected.
All also discussed their abilities with leadership and management in former and current work, and providing unifying voices to the board if chosen to fill the seat, among others during the question and answer session.
The Rockmart seat — vacated with the resignation of Stefanie Drake Burford as of Aug. 31 — must be filled before the end of the month by the commission meet a 60day deadline imposed by an ordinance change in past years.
If the commission can’t decide by a 4-1 vote on a new member to join, the process will be turned over to the Board of Elections to run an application process, then gets turned over the Grand Jury after a month to make the selection.