Lamar Lowery, who served two terms as a Dade County commissioner, is back for more punishment. He announced his candidacy to The Planet on Monday for the District 1 commission seat being vacated this year by Mitchell Smith. He will runs as a Republican.
“I still enjoy serving,” said Lowery. “I’ve always had an interest in serving the county in some way.”
Lowery, first elected in 2002, served on the county commission for eight years, the first few during the tempestuous period when the county switched from a hired county manager to an elected county executive. He lost his seat to Smith in the 2010 election. Since then, he’s served three years on the board of tax assessors, a gig he’ll have to leave if elected to the commission.
Lowery, 58, lives in Wildwood and is married to Kathy Rogers Lowery. The couple have two grown children and five grandchildren. Lowery has been employed for 34 years with the hospital formerly known as Hutcheson, now known as Cornerstone, and shortly to be called be CHI Memorial Georgia. He formerly worked there as an electrician and is currently facilities supervisor for the building. Lowery says he was fortunate to keep his job continuously throughout the hospital’s recent permutations when many treasured coworkers lost theirs. “We saw a lot of people we’d worked with for years go out of there crying, men and women,” he said.
Lowery said probably the most important matter for Dade County going future is continuing to live within its means. “The lake seems to be a big issue for everybody,” he added, referring to a proposed plan to dam Lookout Creek. “My first response is, I don’t understand why we need a lake.”
He pointed out the county’s continuing headaches with the earthen dam on Lookout Lake, which was causing Dade problems with the Georgia Safe Dams division back in his time on the commission and still is. ”I’m not sure we want to get back in the dam business,” he said.
But Lowery is not ready to, ahem, jump into the lake issue with an opinion just yet. “I want to study up on it before I say we don’t need that,” he said. “There’s a lot that I want to learn about it.”
Lowery remembers his years on the commission—2003-2010—fondly. “We did argue a lot, but look at the things we accomplished,” he said.
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