Longtime former Daphne City Councilman John Lake has announced his intent to run for County Commission District 2.

Lake, a 43-year Daphne resident, has lived through two dramatic growth eras and experienced many of the mistakes of ill planned growth. Lake believes Baldwin County’s infrastructure has been impacted by the ill-advised rapid growth of Baldwin County and the Eastern Shore.

“Developers are getting wealthy, while we are paying higher taxes, fees, and receiving less benefits,” Lake said. “I believe the government should not grow faster than economy.”

“My focus will be to communicate with all citizens so they will know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.”

“I am proud to say that in 24 years as an elected official I have never used my elected position for personal gain, nor will I ever do so” Lake said. “I have always put the citizens that I serve first, and my duty as elected official will have always be above my own personal gain.”

Lake has always called for greater citizen involvement in the City of Daphne in his tenure as a councilman. “Over the past few years it has become more and more apparent that if we do not change the direction of our county, our quality of life will be greatly compromised,” Lake said. “We need to get all citizens involved with how our county grows.”

Lake has been highly involved in the community: he was a founding member of the Village Point Foundation and helped to preserve the Bayfront Park. He was also a member of the Daphne Environmental Advisory Committee, Baldwin County Martin Luther King Committee, the Baldwin County Republican Executive Committee, the Lake Forest Property Owners Association Board of Directors, and past member and Chairman of the USS Alabama Battleship Commission.

Lake’s many accomplishments are to get the fully connected to sewer in his district, to improve drainage, increasing the city’s library size, to lower the cost of business license by 20 percent, and helped to obtain Bay front property for a park in Daphne. He also worked with federal legislative delegation for street lights from I-10 to Fairhope, to obtain federal grants to purchase the Village Point Park, and to build sidewalks.

“Over my tenure as a council member in Daphne, I helped to navigate some of the fastest growing years where we went from a population under 12,000 to over 24,000.” Lake said, “I worked where our budget was less than $6 million which now increased to over $30 million without having to increase taxes.”

Lake warns that leaders and residents must pay attention to government that will affect the future our county. “We are now entering a stage in Baldwin County where we must pay close attention to the impact of growth. There are areas that have no growth and areas that have excessive growth. If we do not look at what we are doing, we will lose the quality of life that is Baldwin County.”

Lake promises that every decision he makes as a county commissioner would be made with an eye on the impact for the future. “Every decision I make will be with that in mind not how it impact me but how it impacts future our county. We must leave a more livable, prosperous and higher quality of life for future generations to come.”

“I look forward to meeting the residents of Baldwin County and to learn more about the issues we are facing.”

“In the coming months, I will let people know how I stand on issues. I invite people to thoroughly look at my background for my candidacy for the county commission. I firmly believe that I am the most qualified, knowledgeable, and capable candidate to lead our county into its future. I ask you the voters of Baldwin County for your support and vote on June 5th, 2018 John Lake for County Commission District 2.”