Lake committee chairman McCurry to run for City Council

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• Greg McCurry website

The chairman of the Lake Mitchell Advisory Committee is running for a seat on the Mitchell City Council.

Greg McCurry, 30, said Wednesday he is running to represent Ward 4. Councilman Geri Beck announced last month she would not seek a second term representing the ward.

“She is not running again. I thought I would try to step up,” McCurry said.

Ward 3 Councilman Scott Houwman has also announced he will not run again.

Ward 1 Councilman Doug Backlund and Ward 2 Councilman Dan Allen have not returned e-mails and repeated phone calls asking them if they will run again. None of the other four council seats are up for election this year.

McCurry is the marketing manager for Santel Communications. McCurry and his wife, Micki, moved to Mitchell in 2005.

They have two daughters: Hannah, 4, and Bennet, 1. Micki McCurry was born in Pierre and moved to Mitchell with her family when she was 1. She works with her mother at the Linda Feterl School of Dance.

Greg McCurry said he feels he can represent young families on the council. He said there are no “striking issues” that are leading him to run for office.

“I just feel I could bring some fresh ideas to the table and make the city better,” McCurry said.

On his website, www.gregmccurry.com, he explains his thoughts on the city:

“My life experiences and work history uniquely position me to lead and add positive new ideas to the Mitchell City Council.

“I understand the truth; tax dollars belong to you and should be spent meeting your needs,” McCurry wrote on his website. “I will vote to spend your tax dollars as I would spend my own personal income. My family works to be conservative with our spending and income; Mitchell city government should do the same.”

In addition to serving as chairman of the lake committee, McCurry serves as vice president of the Mitchell Community Scholarship Board and was on the Focus 2020 Lake Mitchell Development Committee.

His work on the Focus 2020 committee and his knowledge and passion for lakes, born during his years in Minnesota, led to his appointment to the Lake Mitchell Advisory Committee, McCurry said.

He has helped create a program called Adopt An Access Area to urge residents to help improve the lake. McCurry is scheduled to discuss the program with the local Rotary Club today. If he’s elected to the council, it’s likely he could serve on the lake board only as a council liaison. The current liaison is Backlund.

He was born in California and lived in Minneapolis and Sioux Falls before coming to Mitchell.

He spent three years as Dakota Wesleyan University’s enrollment services director of marketing.

“My duties included coordinating the undergraduate and graduate studies marketing, facilitating marketing planning and managing all special events held by the enrollment services,” his website says.

McCurry has some experience in politics.

He served as an intern for Rep. J.C. Watts, an Oklahoma Republican whose chief claim to fame before he ran for office was running for touchdowns for the University of Oklahoma football team.

“Congressman Watts instilled a passion in me to give back to the country and community that has given me and my family so much,” McCurry wrote.

“My work during the summer of 2001 on the passage of the faith-based initiative Community Solutions Act of 2001, which was signed into law by President Bush, is something I am very proud of.”

He has a degree in communications with a minor in marketing from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

He worked for three years as a freight broker for C.H. Robinson in Eden Prairie, Minn.

“This experience with a Fortune 500 Company allowed me to sharpen my communications skills and taught me valuable lessons of interpersonal relationship building and how to effectively work in a team under challenging demands for sales quotas and productivity,” McCurry wrote.

March 1 is the earliest date to begin circulating petitions and to file nominating petitions for a City Council candidacy. The deadline to file for the office is 5 p.m. March 29.

The city and school election is set for Tuesday, June 7, at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary School, 1301 N. Kimball St. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.

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