Archer politics heat up ahead of April 12 election

ARCHER – The City of Archer will hold an election for three city commission seats on April 12, only one of which is being contested.

Incumbents Doug Jones is running against Joan White, a former city commissioner, according to Archer City Manager Zeriah Folston.

Jones said he moved to Archer from Gainesville in 2008 because of the rural and charming character of the area, something he acknowledges in his official platform.

As a commissioner, he’s also served as Rural Advisor and a non-voting member of the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization for Gainesville.

“I did not just show up to cast my votes at the meetings,” he said. “I have been very involved in government both in the city limits and outside of the city limits.”

While he has been on the board, Archer was added to the funded priority project list for the first time, Jones said. This long-term project is intended to allocate $12 million toward widening Archer Road.

According to his platform, other goals include building a sanitary wastewater collection and treatment facility and working with the Alachua County School Board to lobby for a hybrid school option for the city that implements virtual or distance­learning.

Jones' challenger, White, said she is ready to clean up a town that she knows citizens take pride in.

“We’ve let our mowing go, we’ve let our maintenance go, we’ve let our parks go – the kids can’t play in them, they look so bad,” she said. “We have a wonderful little town; the people in it are great, they are so good about helping one another and are friendly. We have a lot to offer.”

White said she would like to enliven the recreation in Archer.

Some of her other aspirations include implementing an affordable, reliable and environmentally conscious sewer system.

“We’ve been shut out of all city politics for the last five years,” she said. “And I want these people to know [that] when they come before us, there’s gonna be somebody there listening to them. I am, for one. We’re gonna act on it.”

Fletcher Hope, who currently holds seat three, is unopposed and will return to his seat.

Hope said he wants to continue working toward the platform of his initial campaign, which was resurrecting the recreational offerings within Archer and taking care of the infrastructure and maintenance of the city.

“We’ve steered away from that, put our energies more into developing a waste water system,” he said. “That can’t be the only thing we’re looking at.”

He said citizens have voiced concerns regarding the maintenance of streets, signs and sidewalks.

“Public works administration needs to be a higher priority,” he said. “I hope to be a part of that and not just a siren of complaint, but to actually assist our new city manager and staff with identifying these things and helping in any way I can.”

He said there’ve been recent efforts to allot money for recreation in the city.

“That’s certainly exciting for anybody that has children or resides here with children,” he said. “It was always very important for my wife and I when we had children of school age.”

Marjorie Zander, the incumbent in seat two, will not be returning for another term but will be replaced by Michelle Harris, a newcomer to city government, Folston said.

Harris said she feels like it was her calling to be a part of the city commission.

“I know I was meant to come back to this community and serve here,” she said. “I didn’t know it would happen so quickly because I really didn’t know that there’d be a seat open or that doors would open so rapidly.”

Harris, who has been a teacher at Jordan Glen School & Summer Camp in Archer for 21 years, said her main effort as a commissioner would be to create the best community for the children of Archer.  

“I want to make sure that our parks are clean, that we have community gardens, that our town is beautiful for our children to enjoy [and] that they feel like they are part of a community that supports and loves them, that they’re in a safe place to grow.”

She said her enormous amount of energy – physical, mental and spiritual – will serve as assets as she steps into her new position.

“Being somewhat of an idealist, I have visions,” she said. “I have visions of what we can be. I have dreams of what we can create here.”

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