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Carpenter running for Richmond Hill mayor
Russ Carpenter Mayor
Richmond Hill City Councilman Russ Carpenter greets supporters after announcing that he is running for mayor outside city hall Tuesday afternoon. - photo by Ted O'Neil

Richmond Hill City Councilman Russ Carpenter officially announced that he is running for mayor before about 100 friends and supporters outside city hall Tuesday afternoon.

The two-term council member is the first to announce for the position. Current Mayor Harold Fowler is serving his second four-year term and cannot run again due to term limits. Carpenter is also prohibited from running for his council seat again due to term limits.

"I would not be running if it weren't for Mayor Fowler being prohibited from running again due to term limits," Carpenter said. "I wouldn't run against him."

Carpenter, a Richmond Hill native and social studies teacher at Richmond Hill High School, said he has been involved with local campaigns since he was a teenager and has always been interested in local politics.

"Whether or not you live in the city limits, or in the county, we are all part of what I call our hometown," Carpenter said. "Every day, we all travel through, shop, eat and buy groceries in the city limits, and what happens in this building (city hall) invariably affects us all."

Carpenter said Richmond Hill has many advantages that make it a desirable place to live, including hardworking people, historical significance, a respected school system and a low millage rate.

"Obviously, our secret is out," he joked, noting that South Bryan County is growing.

Carpenter noted that during his time as a council member, the city has added jobs, maintained "top-notch" police and fire departments, expanded recreational opportunities and worked to "lower and make more fair our business taxes and fees."

He said that if elected, his goals will include lowering water bills, attracting businesses, improving infrastructure and make city government "more efficient, accessible, friendly and community oriented."

Carpenter announced an impressive list of endorsements as he welcomed the crowd, with many of his backers present. The list includes Fowler and former Mayor Richard Davis. Carpenter called them both an "inspiration" and said anyone following them has "big shoes to fill."

Other backers include current councilmembers Jan Bass, Johnny Murphy and John Fesperman; former Bryan County Commissioners Chairman Jimmy Burnsed and current Chairman Carter Infinger; County Commissioners Noah Covington, Steve Myers and Brad Brookshire; former city council members Marilyn Hodges, Jimmy Hires, Theron Dareing, Betty Miner and Joanne Robinson Bickley; and former County Commissioner Toby Roberts.

Endorsements also come from Sheriff Clyde Smith, Clerk of Courts Becky Crowe and Tax Commissioner Carol Ann Coleman, as well as former state Rep. Ann Mueller, Rep. Ron Stephens and Sen. Ben Watson and Congressman Buddy Carter.

No other candidates for mayor or the two open city council seats have announced yet for the Nov. 7 election.

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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