Carol Myers, campaign volunteers and friends march through Downtown Athens during this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade. Commissioner-elect Myers will take office this January. Credit: Carol Myers.
Commissioner-elect Carol Myers to Bring Educator’s Perspective, Progressive Ideas to Athens-Clarke County
Carol Myers is an elected official intending to bring progressive ideas to Athens-Clarke County to help lesser privileged communities.
Carol Myers can be seen riding around Athens completing errands on a bright red e-bike. As Athens-Clarke County’s District 8 commissioner-elect, she plans to inspire others to adopt green habits, as well.
Myers, former dean of general education at Athens Technical College and a retired educator of more than 30 years, chose to enter public service for the same reason she loved to teach: to have an opportunity to help people from a variety of backgrounds.
“As you can tell, I’m a white woman, my parents were both schoolteachers. I went to college, it was expected,” Myers said. “And most of the students I had at Athens Tech were first-time students going to college.”
Her ability to easily connect with others made a career in public service after retirement so achievable.
“I found Ms. Myers to be a down to earth and caring person,” said Barbara Barnett, a community activist who was once a student of Myers.
According to the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections archives, Myers won the District 8 race in June earning just over 55% of the vote. Myers said her hardworking nature and strong campaign stances caused her to stand out among her opponents. The commissioner-elect also learned the ropes of campaigning through assisting past local candidates in races of their own.
“I’ve been involved in local campaigns,” she said. “I think that’s an advantage that neither of my opponents had.”
A main motivation for Myers is to educate all Athens residents about the significant governmental change that can be made at the local level.
“I think a lot of people do not understand,” Myers said. “And that’s people with, you know, Ph.D.s to people who are high school dropouts, do not understand what local government does, how it functions, how, as a local citizen, you can really get in there and make a difference.”
Systemic racism is an issue Myers intends to tackle during her time in office.
Myers intends to address the school-to-prison pipeline and establish friendlier relations between the community and Athens-Clarke Police. She has participated in the ACCPD’s Citizen Police Academy, a program for civilians to learn the basics of police training, including lessons in communications, forensics and criminal investigations.
Myers made previous strides in the community through work with Envision Athens, 100% Athens Renewable Energy Initiative, Complete Streets Athens and other local committees and nonprofits. These organizations focus on matters central to Myers’s campaign: clean energy and transportation.
The commissioner-elect said renewable energy is an easy thing to talk to constituents about. Myers said clean energy efforts yield “a win-win situation,” as they benefit the environment, as well as economically benefit Athens-Clarke County. A plan to convert the Bethel Homes low-income complex to solar energy is also under Myers’s watch.
To cut back on carbon emissions, Myers pushes residents to rely less on cars and more on public transportation. The commissioner-elect wants to improve Athens’s public transit by offering more competitive wages for bus drivers and putting a larger percentage of TSPLOST funding towards the system.
Myers also seeks to improve the city’s bike and pedestrian trails to encourage citizens to substitute a drive for a walk or cycle, a task in which she is already one step ahead.
“In Athens, we are so ready [to fight climate change] because we have this fabulous bike-pedestrian master plan,” Myers said. “So, we’re in a really good place.”