Mayor Randall Walker seeks another four years in office, shares campaign priorities 

PERRY – Mayor Randall Walker is vying for another four years serving the city of Perry. Since taking office, he has revitalized downtown, invested in the city by repurposing the old courthouse into the new City Hall, and spearheaded the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant on the east side of the city, scheduled to open early next year. 

We sat down with Mayor Walker to discuss city issues and his priorities if re-elected. 

Sandra Hernandez: Reflecting on your previous term, what would you consider to be your most significant accomplishment?

Randall Walker: This is really going to be my third term because I finished out the two and a half years of Mayor Faircloth’s term after he resigned from office, and then I served a four-year term. So, this would actually be my 10th year if I’m successful as a candidate. But the reality is, mayors don’t have accomplishments. Our community has accomplishments because it requires our citizens to be part of the solution. 

We have an outstanding staff here in Perry that’s part of the solution, and the mayor and council are a very important part of that. We’ve had numerous accomplishments, I think, on different levels. I think of multigenerational investments that we’ve made here in Perry, such as the new repurposing of City Hall, of the old courthouse going to City Hall and the municipal court being held there. That’s going to be there for decades to come. 

Out of our planning process that we have put in place a number of years ago, we have a new water treatment plant. We have a new water storage facility on the west side of Interstate 75. We have a brand new wastewater treatment plant that is going to be operational in the first quarter of 2026. All of these are monumental accomplishments that the entire community has come together to make happen. 

Revitalization of our downtown: if you think about 10 years ago, you didn’t have a parking problem in downtown at all. You could park anywhere you wanted to, but because of all the efforts of the many people here in the city of Perry, we got a vibrant community that people want to participate in. 

We got a lot of new businesses, a lot of new restaurants and those types of things, and those are the things that make me extremely proud of the teamwork that has come together to make all that happen. 

Hernandez: Going off that, were there any initiatives that didn’t go as planned? If so, what did you learn from that experience?

Walker: There are always initiatives that get off track. What we have learned from that is we need to be extremely flexible because things change in the middle of a project. We may have a slowdown and we may think we’re going to have this facility come, or that facility come on, but they don’t and we have to react to that.

Changes in road conditions, putting in new roads and things like that, they are oftentimes delayed. But the reality is, talking about road projects, we’ve talked a large amount about additional road projects that we’re going to put in, recognizing that the cost of putting in roads has doubled or tripled. Where we may have been planning on “x” number of roads to be put in, because of the cost constraints that we’re faced with, that will limit that. 

Hernandez: Right, and now looking ahead to your next term, what are your top priorities and how do you hope to achieve them? 

Walker: I’m focused on probably four things going into the next four years, maybe five.

We’ll continue doing what we’re doing right now. We’ve been very successful as a city in our growth: managing that growth, making sure that growth does not have a negative impact on the quality of life that our citizens enjoy here. We’re going to protect that quality of life, we’re going to manage that growth very aggressively.

Looking at what we really want to do, I think there will be an increased focus on our existing infrastructure. We spent a lot of time and money on building new infrastructure to take care of the growth that we anticipated coming. One of the real advantages of living in Perry is a safe and secure community, and we’re going to make sure that we continue to support both our police and fire in whatever they need to keep this a safe community. We’re going to focus on continuing to supply reliable services that our citizens depend on us for and we’re going to do that in a cost-effective and efficient manner. 

We talked a little bit about roads. It’s going to be very important that we get ahead of the road structure that needs to be in place to accommodate the traffic that will be coming with the growth. Fortunately, the voters approved both funding for Saint Patrick’s Drive as well as the Commodore Drive road extension. We are working on both of those today. 

Saint Patrick’s Drive is well underway. We have the right-of-way there and we’ll be starting construction over there sometime next year. We’re in the process of negotiating for the right-of-way on the Commodore Drive extension at this point in time. That will be happening as well, because those are all SPLOST monies that are available for us to do that. 

Hernandez: As you mentioned, the city has grown a lot recently and, as you know, developers want to bring more housing and open new businesses here. On the infrastructure side, the new water treatment plant will open next year. How would you ensure controlled growth in the city while maintaining its infrastructure? 

Walker: The infrastructure is going to be in place, [with] the control of the development, everybody needs to think about the growth in the city as not just houses. We’ve had tremendous growth in our industrial segment. Jack Link’s plant is open. 

One of the things that I like a great deal is that most of our industrial complexes, our industrial businesses are expanding. If it’s Graphic Packaging or Interfor, or other industries we have here, they are continuing to grow and add on to their capacity. Our commercial growth has been enormous over the last 10 years, with the number of restaurants and different types of retail offerings upcoming. 

Yes, we do focus on housing, but keep in mind that housing has to go through a very extensive planning and zoning review. If those houses are not going to add to the quality of life here in Perry, then changes will have to be made to them. We have very strict guidelines, so we will manage that aggressively. 

Hernandez: Moving on to cost of living, a lot of people are concerned about utility rates, like the city’s fire protection fee, things of that nature. What would be your plan to ensure the city remains an affordable place for residents to live? 

Walker: We talk about our city’s utility service bill, and people call that their water bill. But it’s all the services that we provide. It’s the trash pickup; it’s stormwater maintenance; it’s a fire fee, it’s natural gas; all of it is in one bill. They need to break it down and look at what their water actually costs and what their sewer actually costs them. All of those are in enterprise funds and they’re basically whatever it costs the city to provide that service; that’s what we charge the citizens. There’s no profit built into those enterprise funds. 

Anyone who would like to sit down and talk to me about it, I would love to sit and talk about our bill and how we come up with the rates that we do. We’re committed to providing reliable services at a cost-effective and efficient manner.  

Hernandez: Moving on to public safety, crime is a bit quiet in the city, but as you know, over this past year, there have been cases involving family violence and entering autos. If reelected, how would you enhance public safety while ensuring fairness and equality? 

Walker: Public safety is very important here, not only in police protection, but fire protection and EMT services as well. We’re going to continue to fund them at a level that gives them the opportunity to provide the services that the citizens deserve. 

You are right, we have a safe and secure neighborhood. Family violence is something that’s very hard to prevent. I know that our police department is working very closely with mental health authorities here in Houston County to figure out if there are ways that we can get ahead of and prevent it, but it’s very hard to do. 

If you look at the very unfortunate homicides we had earlier this year, it’s all around family violence. We’ve had 15 people killed here in the county, 11 of those were family violence or family disputes. That’s very tragic and it’s very hard for the police to predict those types of activities. But they are stepping up their patrols; we are basically fully staffed. That’s critical, having full staffed policemen and firefighters. I think that helps us protect the citizens of Perry. 

Hernandez: You and I have both seen at council meetings, concerned citizens speak up to their local government. In your administration, how would you ensure the voices of all city residents are properly represented? 

Walker: All of our meetings are open to the public. I know that you’re there at every one of our meetings, and the last thing I say is that we encourage your interest and participation in our meetings. I encourage people to talk to us; that is their forum. We will act on things that we hear there. Not only that, my door is always open, my phone is always on, so anybody that’s got an issue, I would encourage them to call me, drop by the office and see me, make an appointment. Our staff and I are always open to listening to what citizens have to say and I’ll spend a lot of time out in the public at a lot of different events. I’m constantly talking to people, wanting to know what their concerns are, what’s on their mind, and those types of things are brought back to the council. I think it’s extremely important to communicate on various levels about everything that I do. 

Hernandez: Overall, looking at your past terms, what would you like to say to the community? 

Walker: I am deeply humbled with the opportunity they have given me to serve as mayor and public servant in this seat. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I’ve experienced in my life. 

To keep up with Walker’s campaign, click here. 

The Municipal General Election is on Nov. 4.