Greer mayoral race focusing on growth Posted Monday, October 20, 2003 - 12:45 am By Nan Lundeen STAFF WRITER nlundeen@greenvillenews.com   GREER - Candidates for mayor in Greer, one of the fastest-growing cities in the state, disagree on how services can keep up with growth. Incumbent Mayor Rick Danner, who is seeking his second four-year term, said sometimes running the city efficiently isn't enough. He is open to raising property taxes as one option to consider. Challenger Charles Lindsey said growth will finance itself. He opposes raising taxes. "With the growth of Greer that's coming, I don't see any problem," Lindsey said. Danner said, "Growth may fund some of it, but growth won't necessarily fund all our needs." The election will be Nov. 4. Lindsey, 63, is retired from Michelin Tire's shipping and receiving department and is making his first run at public office. He said he would work full time at City Hall and keep a close eye on finances. "We're going to have to find creative ways of bringing our services up to our present growth for instance, grants, grants, grants and other ways," Lindsey said. "This is going to be a real challenge to run the city without raising taxes, but I really believe that we can do it." Danner said, "I think we have done an incredible job of managing our costs." But he said, "We have stretched some of our employees and certainly some of our facilities and equipment to the point that capital needs in the future will become critical." Danner, 49, a human resources officer at Greer State Bank, said the city should build its reserve fund. "I think that it is short-sighted to say that you'll never raise taxes, because you may be able to get away with inadequate funding and lower levels of service for a certain period of time, but it's eventually going to catch up with you," Danner said. Growth could stop, residential growth costs more in services than it pays in property taxes, and it can take a year before the city collects taxes from new residents, Danner said. Lindsey said if new homes cost the city money, it should consider denying building permits. But he said plans of Spartanburg and Greenville hospitals to build new health facilities in Greer will provide a "tremendous boost in revenue." Danner said that planning for the future is the key to Greer's success. Lindsey would use state gasoline tax money to widen roads and pave streets and would bring bus service to Greer. He opposes annexation and would encourage development on vacant land within the city. The challenger is spending about $850 on a door-to-door campaign. Danner is spending $11,000 for direct mail and to pay for a marketing firm to make calls seeking support. Danner, who holds a B.S. degree in horticulture from Clemson University, grew up in Florence and moved to Greer 28 years ago. He serves on the board of the Municipal Association of South Carolina, chairs Victor Baptist Church's relocation committee and is active in the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce and the Partnership for Tomorrow. Lindsey grew up in Tupelo, Miss., and moved to Greer when he was 17. He graduated from Greer High School and went on to serve in the Air Force. A member of Washington Baptist Church, he does mission work in West Virginia and the Dominican Republic. A volunteer firefighter for 20 years, he volunteers at Greer's soup kitchen.   Greer to zero in on growth issues Posted Sunday, February 15, 2004 - 10:57 pm By Nan Lundeen STAFF WRITER nlundeen@greenvillenews.com GREER - It's time Greer got down to the nitty-gritty of how police, fire and roads are going to cope with growth, according to Mayor Rick Danner. "How are we going to meet those needs?" he asked. Growth issues are moving from the back burner to the front, especially north of Wade Hampton Boulevard. Randall Hipp, who lives on O'Neal Church Road north of Greer, said, "I can honestly say the biggest need is going to be to look at all these back roads that are going to have all these subdivisions." He said O'Neal Church, Mays Bridge and Groce Meadow roads aren't wide enough in several places for two school buses to pass each other. He is concerned because the 1,100-home Blue Ridge Plantation is in the works, the city is annexing 184 acres at O'Neal Church and State 101 where 500 homes will be built and a 119-home subdivision is being developed on 81 acres on O'Neal Church Road. "I'm afraid it's going to be like a lot of things - it's going to be a big problem before it gets addressed," Hipp said. Residents are concerned about police and fire protection getting stretched too thin. "You don't want to excessively stretch the ability of either department to properly provide the services that they need to provide," Danner said. Police Chief Dean Crisp, whose request for more personnel failed to make it into this year's budget, said long-range planning is "something that's desperately needed for our city to keep up with the growth." He is encouraged that the City Council will look at future needs in its retreat Feb. 27-28. Fire Chief Chris Harvey said his department's five-year plan calls for buying land and designing a new fire substation off South State 101 near the BMW plant in 2005. But the mayor and Harvey agreed that the city needs to address points north as well. Blue Ridge Plantation lies within the Lake Cunningham Fire District, Harvey said. The city contracts with Lake Cunningham to provide services to the Cunningham and Robinson lake areas, to areas along State 101, Greer Middle and High schools and property along Country Club Road. The city needs to look at whether it wants to take back those areas when the Lake Cunningham contract expires in 2007, Harvey said. Danner said, "We know that we are going to have to deal with growth. The more proactively we deal with it, the better job we can do managing it."   GSA Business Cargo flies high at GSP New FedEx facility will aid airport's recovery Glenn D. Bridges The timing of the grand opening celebration for a FedEx Express facility at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport couldn't have been better. With a recession on its way, coupled with the fear of flying due to the recent terrorist attacks, most airline companies are struggling to stay afloat, and that could have a dramatic rippling effect on nearly every business associated with an airport, including restaurants, gift shops, car rentals and more-even the airport itself. So when a major company announces a long-term commitment with no sign of layoffs-as Federal Express did in Greer on Oct, 21-it's obviously a boost of confidence to the local economy. Air travel has been predicted by national media to hit rock bottom within the next couple of months. Some experts say it could be off by 40%, eventually leading to the loss of 650,000 airline-related jobs by the end of 2002. Fortunately for GSP International, the $14 million expansion by FedEx helps anchor an already stable atmosphere at the airport. The worldwide headquarters of FedEx, the world's largest express transportation company, is in Memphis, TN, with four additional offices in Hong Kong, Toronto, Brussels and Miami. The company serves 211 countries and handles more than 3.3 million packages each day. "FedEx has no layoffs in mind," assured Shannon Brown, vice president of air, ground and freight services for FedEx Express, during his message to over 300 participants at the celebration. "We are very fortunate to have FedEx  Express here," says Gary Jackson, GSP executive director. "They are the premier air cargo company in the world, and they've made a commitment for both the present and the future by building such a nice facility." FedEx was already established at GSP, but by expanding to 119,000 square feet, the size of the operation becomes the third largest in the Southeast, according to Greer mayor Rick Danner. It's also 10 times bigger than GSP's original FedEx location, and features the latest in sorting technology. Nonetheless, some are concerned that if GSP experiences a significant reduction in airline services operating in the Upstate, potential customers and airport vendors might drift toward using larger airports such as Atlanta or Charlotte. "We will have to recover from the shock of what happened first, and once that's over, life begins again," adds Jackson. "We'll just have to ride it out. So many people have put things on hold until they know more about where the economy is headed." So far, Boeing Co. has announced layoffs of 30,000, American Airlines and  United Airlines 20,000 each, Continental Airlines 12,000, and US Airways 11,000. President George W. Bush has asked Congress for $5 billion in assistance to help airline companies deal with insurance liability. He's also allocated $3 billion in emergency funds to implement airline and airport security improvements to protect against hijacking and other criminal offenses.   Danner has opportunity to become one of Greer's all time great Mayors Spread before Rick Danner, as he embarks on a second term as Mayor of Greer, are perhaps the greatest opportunities that any leader in the history of Greer has ever been given. The next four years promise to be an exciting adventure, perhaps even exceeding the arrival of the BMW Manufacturing in 1992.  Greer will be bustling with growth in every direction.  On the immediate horizon is a new health care campus which will be second to none in the state and could mean more to the community than any single event in history.  Beyond that, Greer may be able to create a new industrial park, complete the downtown revitalization with the ambitious city center project, and welcome new shopping centers and subdivisions. The Mayor will be at the forefront in helping to manage this growth, putting Greer’s best foot forward while setting an example for the remainder of the city council and all 125 city employees. Danner proved that his is up to the challenge during his first term.  The Mayor persuaded the entire city (and especially its employees) to "kept the faith" during a period of sacrifice that was necessary to dig out of a $1 million financial hole. Greer will not be flush with cash over the next four years, but the financial issues should be more manageable.  Yet there will be more needs than funds to go around, so Danner will have to continue to keep a sharp eye on the ledger sheet.  Hopefully the city can put in place a long range plan which will insure that the fire department retains its hard earned Class Three ISO rating.  But this can not be done at the expense of the other departments.  At the same time, citizens of Greer have to come to expect quality public services, so the leadership will have to think twice before arbitrarily cutting taxes for political gain. The greatest problem the Mayor will face is dealing with growth.  There will be a myriad of tough annexation and zoning issues, some of which may even wind up in court if the recent past is any indication.  Danner has shown that he is highly capable of dealing with these types of issues.  He is honest and above board in grappling with the issues and people of different viewpoints.  At the same time, however, Danner is not offensive or heavy handed so that he does not convert people into enemies of the city. The next four years will bring Danner long days and countless meetings.  But Greer is in a very enviable position of dealing with growth compared to many communities which are shrinking and trying to avoid collapse. Provided no unforeseen disaster strikes, Danner could be just beginning a voyage which may become a long term run of leadership that could rival Joe Riley who was recently elected to an unprecedented eighth term as a mayor of Charleston.  Danner may well become first mayor since the late Worth Barnett (in 1970s) to serve more than two terms. Note: A copy of this article was sent to me and unfortunately, I do not have the name of the author and publication.  Bruce