Jones brings strong work ethic to Dougherty County Commission

ALBANY — For the people in Dougherty County’s District 6 who wonder about Anthony Jones, who will officially become their new county commissioner this morning, this is the essence of the man.

“When I was a 22-year-old working at my first job (as an extension agent) in Shelby County, Alabama, most of the farmers I worked with were old enough to be my grandparents,” said Jones, who defeated long-time County Commissioner Jack Stone in the May 20 Democratic primary to claim the District 6 seat. “I encouraged them to use specific fertilizers and to get their soil tested, but the general reaction was ‘Who’s this young boy telling us what to do?’ So I had an idea.”

Jones talked Francis Hall, a widely known farmer in the community, into renting him an acre of land “she owned that everybody in the community rode by.” Jones and a hired hand worked the land, usually tending it late in the evening when he’d come home from work. They planted tomatoes, corn, peas and butter beans.

“For the first couple of days, I worried about those tomato plants,” Jones said. “I could hear what those old farmers in the town were saying. But I ended up with so many tomatoes I had to give them away. We had a ton of corn — I know we had 75 bushels — and all kinds of peas and butter beans.

“At the end of the day, when I went to see Ms. Hall about settling up, she said, ‘You came in here telling all us old folks what we should do on our farms, and we didn’t want to listen to you. It turns out, though, you’re a damned good farmer. You don’t owe me no rent.’”

That, Jones says as he relates the story, is what the people of District 6 can expect for at least the next four years.

“Everything I do, I go in with the work ethic that I’m going to leave it better than I found it,” said Jones, who retired from the University of Georgia Extension Service in 2009 after 24 years as head of the Dougherty County 4-H program. “That’s the same goal I take onto the County Commission. Even if I’m not the one the folks want back after four years, I plan to have this position ready for the next person to take off and run with it.”

Along with newly elected County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas, Jones will be sworn in today as a duly-elected member of the commission. And while he’s been champing at the bit to get started with the county government, Jones said he hasn’t been sitting idly by while waiting for today.

“I haven’t been sitting around cooling my heels since the election,” Jones said. “I’ve been very actively involved with the folks working to stop that Sabal Trail (natural gas pipeline) project. If Alabama and Florida are the only ones who’ll benefit from that pipeline, why wouldn’t they run it from Alabama to Florida and leave us out of it?”

Jones said he’s been attending neighborhood watch meetings, talking with citizens in the community about the issues that most impact them and meeting with other commissioners in preparation for his tenure. There are, he notes, any number of issues that he wants to address.

“Flooding is still a big issue in some parts of the county, and taxes are a major concern,” the commissioner-elect notes. “And we’ve got to look at the issue of our employees’ pay and figure out a way to get them a raise. A lot of those folks have worked hard for this community, and they haven’t had a pay increase in quite some time.

“Our first responder agencies have become a training ground for Atlanta, Macon and even some smaller cities with folks coming in here for a year or two to learn from our people’s expertise, then taking that experience somewhere where they get a better-paying job. We have to stop that.”

Jones, who worked five years with Auburn University as an extension agent in Alabama before coming to Dougherty County in 1985, said he’s aware of a building momentum in the county. He said he plans to work to see that it continues.

“What we as a commission have to do is work hard to make sure we don’t let this momentum die,” he said. “We may have to agree to disagree at times, but we all should be past the point of egos. This is not a time of ego-tripping, it’s a time to move our community forward with a new level of government.”

Jones said he expects the commission to work with the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission to try and bring jobs to the community. And he said the board must do everything in its power to help law enforcement agencies fight crime.

“We need to get with Justin Strickland and those folks at EDC to try and generate jobs,” Jones said. “Jobs are the backbone of a community; when there are enough jobs, families stay together, kids stay in school and the crime rate goes down.

“And we have to work to fight crime. I can only imagine the heartache of these parents who are having to bury their children way too early. We have to work with our young folks, get them to put these guns down and talk. They can talk through their differences, but for God’s sake, they have to put down the guns.”

When he becomes the county’s newest commissioner, Jones says he’s not concerned about hitting the ground running. He’s been “running” since May 20 when he defeated Stone.

“I believe Jack Stone is an encyclopedia of knowledge, and for us to go into separate corners and put on our boxing gloves and start taking shots at each other would be foolish,” Jones said. “Thankfully, that hasn’t happened. I have given Mr. Stone nothing but respect, and he has endorsed me as the right man to take his place. I believe in my heart if I have a question about District 6, I can go to him and he will shed light on it.

“When I got my first job in Shelby County, Alabama, my boss told me, ‘This ain’t no 8-to-5 job. You’ve got to burn the candle at both ends.’ I expect to do the same with the County Commission. I’ve already told Mr. (County Administrator Richard) Crowdis I want to have some office space and a computer available. I’m going to learn from everyone on the commission, but no one’s going to out-work me.”