Johnny
Hart Announces
Place One Candidacy
January 8, 2008
Former Arab Mayor Johnny
Hart is running for City Council Place 1. Hart made
the formal announcement in a press release issued Monday
afternoon.
Hart said he is seeking the
Place 1 position because of his love for Arab and his desire
to "see the city continue to grow and increase the
opportunities for our children". Hart went on to say,
"I want to work with the Mayor and Council to help maintain
the quality of education that we now have and to make it
even better". "Arab is a great city with a lot of
potential. We have one of the best educational systems
in the state, if not the best," Hart added.
Hart served as Arab Mayor for
almost 14 years before resigning to become the Marshall County
911 Director. He has served in that position for the past
six years. Prior to being elected Mayor, Hart worked
eighteen years with the U. S. Postal Service and four years with
Hart Real Estate. He is married to Linda Betterton Hart.
They have three children: Heather Hart Collins, Hollis Hart, and
Wesley Hart. They have five grandchildren and another
grandchild due in May. He is a life long member of Arab
First Methodist Church.
Hart is presently serving his
fourth year on the Alabama Commercial Mobile Radio Service
Board. He has served the past three years as Chairman and
has been re-nominated by the State Auditor to serve four more
years. He was recently elected President of the Alabama
NENA Association, which is the state level association for the
National Emergency Number Association. He also serves on
the Marshall County Economic Development Council and as a member
of the Arab Musical Theatre Board.
Hart lists several
accomplishments during his administration as Mayor:
Development of the walking trail; resurfacing a majority of the
city streets; expanding the sewer system in North Arab; applying
for and receiving millions of dollars of state and federal grant
funding; applying for and receiving federal grant funding for
computers at the Arab Primary School; giving over a million
dollars to Arab City Schools; increasing funding for the
schools; raising the schools from near bottom in local support
to average state wide; building a new city hall, police station,
fire station, soccer field complex, three new baseball fields,
and the Arab Veteran Memorial; upgrading boys and girls softball
fields; $400,000 for improvements to the Arab Swimming Pool,
upgrading the tennis courts, and the Arab High School baseball
field. Hart said he is particularly proud of a project
that is "near and dear to my heart - Christmas in the Park.
Looking to the future, Hart
said that he wants to: See the city employees paid a fair
wage for the work they do; see the City Council live within our
means and be financially accountable; work with the Mayor and
Council to sour programs foy youth and seniors improved; listen
to the citizens and work with the Mayor, the administrative head
of the city, to help formulate policies and budgets to help
complete our commitments to the citizens of Arab.
Hart finished by saying, "I
pledge to work with the Mayor and City Council to help make the
decisions that are best for all of Arab."
