Brower reflects on time serving as a commissioner

With the primary election approaching for the city, county, and state several office holders have filed for re-election in order to beat the incumbent deadline on February 18. One current office holder, however, did not file for re-election.

Larry Brower has held the office of county commissioner for twenty years. Once his current term is up, to the surprise of many, he is not seeking re-election.

Brower originally ran for office as a way to serve the public, something he had always been interested in doing.

“I just figured it might be a way to serve the public. I like to help the public. I’ve always enjoyed helping if I can. Also, I am very honest, and I think people need to have somebody in there that will serve the people in an honest way,” Brower said.

Brower didn’t expect that he would be in office as long as he has been. It was something he expected to be short lived.

“I thought I would run for maybe one or two terms, but then it seemed like the people were really backing me so I decided to stay on,” Brower said.

With a twenty year career as a commissioner, Brower has taken action that he is proud of, and made tough decisions along the way.

“I always took a tough stance on alcohol issues I was strictly against the use of alcohol on county properties. So whenever that kind of issue would come up I would vote no. I was always pretty stern on everything. I go to coffee a lot so I would listen to what the people want, and ,if they seemed like they really wanted something done, I would try to represent the tax payers,” Brower.

Brower emphasized that listening to the people in the community is what was important. He viewed his job as a way to serve the people, and sometimes that would make his job a bit difficult.

“The toughest part is voting no against the other commissioners. When the others are for it and you’re against it, that’s the toughest part. I’ve always believed that I should do what I think is right for the tax payers so if that meant a no vote, that’s the way I’d go,” Brower said.

After twenty years, though, Brower has decided to end his career as a county commissioner. County commissioner is a position that requires the office holder to stay rather stationary. It’s required of the commissioners to attend meetings and to know what’s happening in the community so that they can better serve it.

“Well my wife is retiring from school so we decided we wanted to do some traveling maybe go visit relatives. As a commissioner, you’re pretty tied down. We just want to kind of take some time and enjoy life,” Brower said.

Brower is not running for re-election, but he does leave some words of advice for the next commissioner to come to office.

“I think that if you’re going to represent the people, then, if you think the people want it, you have got to stand up for the people. Don’t think about yourself, but think about what the tax payers would want,” Brower said.