Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Person.....Mickle, Jack ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 May 17, 2007, 7:52 pm Source: Sesquicentennial Supplement II, Ledger-Enquirer Name: Jack Mickle Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/mickle12885gph.jpg Image file size: 129.2 Kb Mickle Shares 1st Mayor's Concerns By David Everett Enquirer Staff Writer Jack P. Mickle has the advantages and the burdens of the 20th Century on his shoulders. As mayor of Columbus, he doesn't have to worry about Indian attacks -as the first mayor did. But Mickle does have all the problems of an urban metropolis - downtown decay, crime and checking growth. Mickle was elected mayor of the Columbus government in 1974, 146 years after the city chose its first intendant, or mayor. In those pioneer days, it was an attorney, Ulysses Lewis, who led the fledging government through its first birthday. Now Jack Mickle is leading a government just seven years old -the city-county consolidated government of Columbus. "I think the past has been rich for us here in our city and I think the future is bright for Columbus," the mayor said in a recent interview. "We are the brink of great industrial growth and we have solved many of our problems with development because we have more of it coming in each day. "Our slums are being cleaned up, gradually, and I believe that we're eventually going to solve many of the problems facing us today." Micle's rise to elected office began as he left his job at a local bank after 22 years to join the staff of Columbus' congressman, Jack Brinkley. He served five and a half years with the representative as local district aide and then got the political itch himself. With little help from the powerful leaders of his own political party -the Democrats -Mickle defeated the incumbent mayor and took office in January 1975. Like Intendant lewis, Mickle is still working at building a city next to the Chattahoochee River. He's quick to point out the Trade and Convention Center now under construction near the river. And he often gazes out his seventh floor window in the 11 floor Government Center tower at the downtown redevelopment in his city. In some ways, Mickle's worries are similar to those of the man in his place 146 years ago. In 1828, Intendant Lewis concerned himself with moving houses from the routes of streets planned near the Chattahoochee River. Today Mickle helps direct a massive urban renewal effort financed by the federal government and intended to rid the city's streets of slums. In 1828, Lewis had to worry about damaged homes and personal injuries from a Chattahoochee River Flood. In 1978, Mickle's government is facing a million dollar lawsuit from residents of a north Columbus subdivision who blame the city for flood damage. In 1828,Lewis was at the helm of the city whose only tax was five percent of the price paid to the State of Georgia for a homestead lot. The highest price paid that year for a lot was $1,855. Today Mickle is the full-time chief executive of a massive government with a $37 million budget for fiscal 1978, and property owners pay an average of several hundred dollars in taxes each year. In 1828, Lewis directed a city government of eight or 10 top officials and only a few others. The city had a population of about 1,000 persons. By the time Mickle took office, the city government had nearly 25 top officials, hundreds of other managers and more than 2,000 employees. And the Columbus-Phenix City metropolitan area was nearing the 200,000 mark in population. Mickle himself is a man of Columbus. He came to the city from Auburn,Ala.,when he was very young and began his adult working years in the local textile mills. He eventually worked his way up to a job at Columbus Bank and Trust Co. and then to the congressman's office. Today, he's serving the final year of a four-year term as mayor of the second largest city in Georgia. He makes nearly $27,000 a year and be's going to run for re-election in the 150th Birthday Year of Columbus. "I want to continue my administration in a progressIve manner. I think I'll make a good mayor for four more years. "I think the major problems we have had are getting new industry and this crime we've been having. We need to work for new jobs for our people who need them. And we've had the problems of crime that most cities have." The "problems of crime"to which the mayor referred is the wave of murders in a two year period of the city. Local residents have suffered through several sensational murders of young women. The terror has been heightened in recent months by a killer or killers who strangle and molest elderly women in their homes. While the killer has not yet been caught, Mickle has called for a special investigative task force to help police efforts. Mickle is proud of the marks he has left on his city. He points to the Trade Center, which he says he pushed through by appointing the committee which worked out the funding. He remembers the campaigns he personally began against prostitution and pornography after The Enquirer ran a series of articles on the world's oldest profession. And he's proud that he will be mayor when most of the route of Columbus' new interstate highway, 1-185, will be completely paved. The worst critics of the Mickle administration call the job of mayor too much for the man. But he says he Will meet those critics - and his political opponents head-on in the upcoming election. How? "Well, I pray every day," he told a reporter. "And I go home each day knoning I've done the best I can." In the 150th birthday year of Columbus, its voters will be able to decide if Mickle has, in fact, been doing the best that can be done in the city's highest office. Special Sesquicentennial Supplement II Ledger-Enquirer, Sunday , April 23, 1978. Pg S-2. Jack Mickle, b 11/14/1925 d. 3/20/2006 (CGT) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/mickle12885gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 6.5 Kb