Yes, We Went and Interviewed the Mayor of Athens, GA... (Kelly Girtz)

I'm Alec and I'm about to go uh interview the mayor of Athens Kelly [Music] [Applause] gers I want to give a big shout outs mayor girs hanging out with me today it's a beautiful Wednesday the city hall yeah it's the first time the the first time I'd ever been was the the last time I was up here to see you and yeah it's beautiful inside I love the architecture in particular it is a nice building I think this building is 120 years old this year yeah how old is a Athens all together so as a place that people called Athens yeah uh 1806 is really when we had our birth as a community uh of course the university had been sort of scoped out for some years prior to that sure you know the State Assembly decided they wanted a university in 1785 uh it took some time for it to actually land here uh University buildings began coming out of the ground in about 1802 Athens becomes a city 1806 interestingly ethens didn't have a mayor for about 70 years though so the first many decades of Athens existence there was a thre member commission that governed Athens and then in the 1870s they decided Well we may want to modernize a little bit elect a mayor uh and so then uh Athens moved along with the mayor of course as a standalone City and then in 1990 uh residents decided it would be really a good idea to merge the city and the county given that geographically this is the smallest county in the state and a big portion of the population of the county was already living in the city so that's when the city and county got married and we became Athens Clark County and so I am now the fifth mayor of the Unified Government of Athens Clark County congratulations that was one hell of a history lesson cuz I wouldn't have learned that about anywhere else I don't a better person to learn it from than anybody's right uh with that being said since you know a lot about Athens are you from here grow up here I am not from here okay um now I now have a child who is born here so um I call Noah my son um sort of my anchor in Athens so he has solidified my presence here born at St Mary's on backer Street um but I came here for graduate school in the mid1 1990s my parents are from Minneapolis and my dad was uh in the Navy for his career and so in the very early 1970s when I was a young child we ended up in nor Virginia okay so I spent 20 years in norfol uh went all through school um worked all kinds of jobs um ended up going to undergraduate school there and getting a degree in sociology and criminal justice from Old Dominion University and had decided I really wanted to move into education and so I came here got a graduate degree in education and then began teaching first seventh graders then eighth graders then high school students uh later was principal classic City High School which is kind of the small nontraditional Public School wow here um and then worked for uh what's now Foothills Regional High School which is the regional evening Public School uh that kind of supports kids from you know roughly Commerce down to milleville um and then I have just begun my sixth year as mayor of aens clar County I can't believe it yeah dude it's a long time coming that's crazy how many CH like how many kids lives do you think you interacted with like throughout your time working with the it's it's probably in the thousands yeah certainly it's in the thousands um the coolest thing about having all those relationships with young people is that you know they grow into adulthood sure and many of them stick around town and you know you've developed these multi-decade contacts and so it's unusual for me if I go out for a walk I like to walk it's kind of my probably biggest source of exercise these days yeah is you know I'll be on you Broad Street or Prince Avenue um and there's car to stoplight and window rolls down somebody hollers my name girs GS there you are and it's somebody who I taught 20 years ago oh my gosh and so sweet I me just heartwarming do you uh do you think that that helped drive you into becoming the mayor and uh trying to become the mayor so you can you know create more change in the community yes absolutely I I don't think I would have gotten involved in local policym and of course I was on the County commission for 12 years for three terms before I was mayor wouldn't have had that experience or this experience had I not been in the classroom working with young people and their families here in Athens among the things I did at Coil Middle School where I taught seventh and then eighth graders uh was also working as the homebound instructor so if kids were on long-term disability sure you know you know let's say they' broken a limb or you know had a bacterial infection and just couldn't come in every day I would go visit those young people a couple of times a week and so that got me into neighborhoods all over town yeah and so I I I got accustomed to sort of the geographic lay of Athens um because you know the reality is I think a lot of people come here as undergraduates sure and you can easily spend four years of your life on campus and hanging out downtown and not know the rest of the community right but because I was in Nelly b or the Spring Valley trailer park or you know Lexington Gardens or um you know any neighborhood U it gave me a sense of the community and among other things it gave me a sense of the needs in the community right and I realized listen I can I could be a rock star in the classroom I don't want to pretend I was but I could be like the kudagra of all teachers sure but there's still some needs that aren't going to be cared for for those young people and their families and and so that really drove me into wanting to run for office H yeah I can only imagine the first person perspective of seeing you a different family situations all demographics um quick question for you yeah I know you said you like walking what's one of your favorite things about Athens would you say it's a running store Five Points yeah are a host of great things about Athens I mean it's it's hard to narrow down um definitely the local economy any number of people who are running fantastic small businesses from The Running Store independent Bakery rashi's Cuisine you name it um so many cool places lots of great music venues I'm a big music guy so uh I like going out to listen to bands and you know and I'll say I've lived in a handful of communities you know between living in norfol and and the time I came here I can't think of a place in America where you can walk to more live music venues kind of in one Urban cour oh no place that I've been not Minneapolis not Austin Texas live music capital of the country there's no place where there are that many live music stages you know within close proximity so that's super cool um and and I do like to walk and so I mean I can't pretend that this is always easy work and so sometimes I need to decompress a little bit you know I want to be among nature and so for me an ideal afternoon if I've had a you know challenging or heavy duty week is to just walk up the greenway um to Sandy Creek Nature Center and um and Hike the trails there like that time underneath the trees yeah in nature you know is refreshing and uh and that's accessible from downtown and so I like that too you know you can move quickly from kind of this dense Urban grid you know into the natural sphere yeah it's a great way to get to the East Side M it is uh with you talking about decompressing and things like that another question would be uh what would you say a common misconception about your role in the city is now that's uh it's a great question um what I have learned sure is that when you have a title like mayor that comes with lots of expectations and among the expectations is that you can handle all things or manage all things um you can make all things happen um It's Not Unusual for me to get calls or emails or visits from people who want the governor to do something to people who want the school district to do something um to people who want the rain that falls from the sky to do a different thing yeah and so people ascribe all this power to you that you don't really have yeah but because you title it's assumed that hey if you can't do it you can find somebody for me who can do it so that's that's an interesting phenomenon in mayoring it's it's kind of like networking I'm sure everybody knows a little bit yeah uh a quick question uh for folks that are thinking about coming to Athens Clark what would you want them to know about our city this is a city that has such Vitality the people here are lovely um it's easy to make friends here you know no matter what you like to do uh whether you like good food um whether you like live music uh whether you like outdoor life whether you're into Recreation or Sports all of that is here for you in Athens um I I often describe Athens as a city that really sort of punches above its weight you know we sort of carry the the cultural heft of a city much much larger than Athens right here um of life is great and I can say as as parent of a fifth grader it's a great place to raise a kid yeah um you know you you think also of communities that have amenities of our quality often being much larger places obviously places where you might have to spend more time in traffic than in Athens and so that's a lovely piece of Athens too that you can get around pretty easily they're relatively few pinch points here at this town oh yeah I get to work in six minutes it's just right right down the street for me um what sort of principles are you thinking about when making choices for the city and citizens and how to best serve them I often compare Civic life and Civic Health to to to to the health of your own body okay your own cell and so you know you think about if you get your general practitioner they don't just ask are you getting enough exercise they don't just ask how's your diet they don't just ask is your mental health good you know all those things in so many more play into what it means to be healthy and so when it comes to Civic life you know I'm always asking myself what are the cornerstones of a healthy community and how do we put those cornerstones in place in a way that's going to be lasting in a way not that just is going to be impactful for this moment and this year but long term so I'll give you one example right talk to mayor of any Community the question of Public Safety comes up and part of Public Safety is hey do you have a good police force do they have the technology they need are you able to hire people at the right rate and those are all very very important questions but you also have to ask what are you doing today to make sure that in 10 years and 20 years you're setting successors up for place that's safe to live and so we're asking ourselves how do we make neighborhoods that are safer by design that are set up to be safe what are we doing with our young people that makes them more likely to go into very positive adult experiences and less likely to go into circumstances that are going to be dangerous or damaging to their health or the health of those around them so when I'm thinking about the decisions we make now it's it's both how are we setting up solid cornerstones and cornerstones that are going to be lasting if uh if you had a crystal ball in front of you then with some of the decisions you've helped make what would you say the future looks like for Athens then well the the the future is one I think of of Greater economic vitality and greater Civic Health U and greater safety and also more fun yeah um you know I think about the number of amenities that have been put in place in just the last few years whether it's the Firefly Trail or the classic center arena that's under construction now or the complete reimagining of the former Georgia Square Mall property and those are all going to be just fun places to be uh in addition to being things that contribute to uh the cultural life and and to the economic health of the community I know you have three years left as mayor and I'm sure you enjoy it very much but uh what are you looking forward to doing when you're not mayor you got any big plans have you thought about this at all well uh you know I I I have a few working years left after uh being mayor so I'll be 55 okay when I'm gonna be mayor and and I like to work I really enjoy working um in in part because work is a place where you have great relationships and you continue to learn and that's a wonderful thing about this job so I know I'll want to be in a position where I both use some of the skills I've developed here and in my time in public Ed and can contribute to the community so I I imagine I will be doing something uh in in Civic service whether that's in education or housing or something maybe adjacent to there um I can tell you what I'm also looking forward to is uh slightly less email traffic at midnight and uh slightly fewer meetings in this room uh where you know some days I'm here from 5:00 P p.m until midnight uh in in front of a room full of people in the cameras and uh and while I've enjoyed that experience I also will enjoy not having that experience on a weekly basis oh I'm sure as a realator you know I've had some folks call me in funky times send me some crazy emails at crazy hours yes what sort of uh activities do you enjoy doing with your family you got a fifth grader now I I do um our our son is a huge Sports nut both as a spectator and a player dogs fan big dogs fan okay um big Braves fan and so um we you know often we go to baseball games at fley field um I enjoy going to my son's basketball games uh and then he also likes to fish a lot and so you know you can often find us up at Lake Chapman at Sandy Creek Park um which was is a great public space too uh you know in the warmth of the summer you'll find us swimming at the beach there um there is just so much to enjoy here at aens yeah it's got it all man all right I got one last question for you I told you that I wasn't going to ask you anything political but you owe me one I didn't get to see you the first time but I was going to show you this and ask for your opinion on it okay cuz I think a lot of people like to know what you think about this I don't know if you've ever seen this I I I have seen this yes no I uh I I I I've encountered all kinds of crazy things on the internet um and uh so you know I'm I'm grateful that uh uh the feet that continue to support me have inspired so many that's awesome dude I appreciate it yes this this will be the peak of my thing F really no doubt but um well again man we really do thank you for your time it's super cool that you take a couple took a couple of minutes to hang out with us we we greatly appreciate it this is fantastic I can't say it enough um hope everybody has a fabulous 2024 this is going to be a great [Music] year yeah

Channel: Living in the Athens Georgia Area

Views: 134

Keywords: Shorts, reels, Athens Georgia, living in athens, living near athens, georgia, uga, university of georgia, ga bulldogs, college town, retirement towns, athens music scene, music town, southern town

Id: VriPcCCGuow

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 16 2024