Greenwood mayor seeking third term

<p>Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers wants to spend another four years focusing on revitalizing downtown Greenwood, bringing in new employers and improving traffic flow.</p><p>The two-term mayor filed on Tuesday for a third term as the rapidly growing city’s top leader.</p><p>This time, he’s got some competition.</p><p>In the primary election this May, Myers will face fellow Republican candidate Dale Marmaduke, who filed last week. Whoever wins that race will move on to the general election in November. No Democrat or independent candidates have filed yet.</p><p>Myers wants to see several downtown projects through to the end, he said. That includes renovating salvageable parts of the old Greenwood Middle School and reshaping that land into a livable and walkable downtown hub which would include condos, townhouses, retail shops and restaurants. It’s all part of a vision the Greenwood native has had for the city for a long time, he said.</p><p>“We’ve got so much interest and enthusiasm from the public and the developer side of things,” Myers said. “I’m excited about that, and I want to see it come to fruition.”</p><p>Much of his first two terms as mayor have been focused on revitalizing downtown Greenwood, which was dilapidated and 75 percent vacant when he took office in 2011.</p><p>Now, it’s about 95 percent occupied, he said.</p><p>“To see the old downtown take off again with businesses that are thriving now more than ever, it’s exciting. This is where I grew up, so to see it alive and breathing again is really exciting,” Myers said.</p><p>His greatest accomplishment, besides revitalizing downtown, improving the city’s roads through dozens of construction projects and balancing its budget, is landing a deal with Amazon to build a distribution facility in Greenwood and bring in more than 1,200 jobs, Myers said. The project was announced last year.</p><p>He will continue to search for those kinds of opportunities that bring in more jobs, he said.</p><p>But he wouldn’t be able to do any of it without his staff, he said.</p><p>“I have a Class A team. Every city employee is well-thought of and well-respected and admired by me. I’ve fought for their pay, for salary increases over the last seven years, and I will continue to fight for that. I’m proud of them,” he said.</p><p>His plan as he enters the race is simple: Stay positive, he said.</p><p>“I’ll just keep focusing on moving the city forward, and continue to bring quality businesses, jobs and homes into the community,” Myers said.</p>