Meet the Candidates: Dan Curry

For the city of Loganville, three at-large seats are open on the council and the mayor's seat also is open. Seven residents have qualified as candidates for the council, and two candidates are running for mayor. Incumbent Mayor Dan Curry is running for re-election against challenger Jerry Price.

Name: Dan Curry
How long have you lived in Loganville? Nine years
Educational background: I graduated South Gwinnett High School in 1967. I went straight to work and served in several different industries. I wrapped up my career in 2011 after being a church administrator for 10 years.
Family: Nancy and I were married on Valentine's Day in 1975 and we're nearing 34 years. We have two married daughters who graduated from the University of Georgia.
Military background: N/A
Occupation: Retired, but serving the citizens of Loganville

How many terms/years have you served on the council? I had served 40 months on the council. During the last 16 months I was vice-mayor, and this year I had to step down to run for mayor. Now I've been mayor since July.

What inspired you to run for re-election? I love working with people, and I like to help solve problems and make things become prosperous. I want to help figure out whatever problems the city has and come up with some rational, clear-cut decisions that best serve the people of our community. 

What are some of the notable projects you've helped or spearheaded in the past? From the time I was sworn in on the council, I shared the Public Utilities Committee, and during that time, we built the new water tower. I still believe water is the most important thing that I want to make sure we always have.

Secondly, always rated very high on my list is public safety. I think I work well with our public safety officials and keeping our citizens safe, and we have a good response time. 

I also served on the Human Resources Committee, the Planning and Zoning, as well as Parks and Events. We have some good parks, and one of our most recent projects is the new town green. We're very hopeful that, with the town green being there, it will initiate some growth and activity in the Main Street downtown area.

What are some of the immediate projects you want to work on if you win the mayor's seat? One thing we've already started was reaching out and encouraging other businesses, such as restaurants and retail, to come to Loganville. Of course, we're looking at entertainment such as theaters. We would love to see a theater come to town. We would love to have another box store come in, such as a Target or a Costco, too. As we bring in more business and restaurants, that's keeping the revenue local, and it enables us to keep the taxes at more a reasonable balance.

What are some of your long-term goals for the city? Back in 2010 around the time I was entering the council, we adopted the LCI Initiative, which is a 25-year plan for the city. When you look back, even in a down economy, we were able to accomplish some of those things. We were able to get sidewalks and we have more sidewalks coming into place. The town green was a part of that initiative. Putting emphasis on Main Street was a part of that, too. In November, we've got to go back and start redoing our current LCI Initiative. We're probably getting a grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission to make adjustments and figure out what we need to do in the future. In the last couple of months, we have hired a marketing firm to come in and they're finishing up their third report on what we need to go after.

What do you think is the greatest challenge facing Loganville, and how would you approach it? Probably the greatest challenge, when you start looking at all the statistics from Atlanta, is crime. We have got a wonderful police department that is well trained and well equipped, and we've just got to keep them well trained and well equipped. One of our police officers is assigned to a DEA task force in Atlanta, which means that we can fight drugs before they get to Loganville. 

Another challenge is traffic. We are going to have growth, even in a down economy, on the Gwinnett County side. We've got to promote a little more heavily on the Walton County side. The city is looking at modifying some of the intersections, one of them being Main Street and Highway 78. We had GDOT officials come out here and look at the intersection and offered some of the suggestions. Right now, they're redesigning the intersection on paper and seeing if they justify a turn arrow at the intersection. Another intersection is Highway 81 and Highway 78 at the Kroger shopping center, and the third one is Highway 81 and Lawrenceville Highway. We have put some SPLOST money aside to see if the state can add some turn lanes and modify the turn light. We're asking the state if they can partner with us on a joint venture while utilizing some of the state funds.