Editor’s Note: This article was first published on Dec. 30. 2021.
Jerry Baggett moved to Habersham County five years ago to get away from the hustle and bustle of Metro Atlanta and focus on family, and this week, he became the county’s new public works director.
Baggett may not have worked in public works before, but he believes his experience in the military, his education, extensive career in construction and experience with working with local government will help him be successful in his new role.
Baggett served in the military during Desert Storm and served in the Persian Gulf War as an engineman. After his first enlistment for active duty, he enlisted as a Navy reservist for four years. His time with the military put him through school at the University of Florida, where he got a degree in construction management and switched from active duty to work with the construction force for the Navy Marines.
“I’ve been in construction since I can remember,” Baggett said. “After I got my degree, I became project manager at a design-build firm in Snellville, and did I lot of rezoning and zoning meetings, and then commissioner meetings.”
Those commissioner meetings, presentations to zoning boards and planning commissions piqued his interest in public works and local government.
“Being that heavy in the design part of it, and having to go through all those rezonings, is what got me interested in being a part of the county,” Baggett said. “I just thought it was a neat process.”
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Baggett has experience in the private contracting sector, too, and worked on building additions to and renovating public schools in Athens-Clarke County. When he saw Habersham’s public works director position open, he admits he didn’t feel like he has much of a chance at getting the position when he applied.
“I didn’t really think I had much of a chance,” Baggett said. “But I put in for it and met with Alicia [Vaughn], and the rest is just history.”
He says he’s excited about the new opportunity he has to learn all he can about how public works operates in Habersham County, and that he thinks putting his skills as a project manager to use will help him effectively work with the county’s budget.
“I’m just really excited about the opportunity,” Bagget says. “Having seen the process from the contractor’s perspective, working for the design-build firm, I would have to hire the engineers and staff, and then I would be the one up there at the commissioner’s meeting, presenting the project to the community.”
He’s looking forward to working with the board of commissioners and the county road crew, who he hopes to work closely with to help keep the county’s roads in the best shape they can be.
“I’m going to really learn a lot from the commissioners,” Baggett said. “I’m used to working with a budget, used to working with a schedule. We’ve got a really good road crew that I’m working with, I got to meet them this week and we’re going to do some real good things together. I’m really excited about working with them.”
Even with plenty of new things to learn and work on, his past experience does give him an advantage in Habersham’s new challenges.
The development Habersham County is seeing isn’t something Baggett is new to. When he grew up in the Tucker and Norcross area, the now-booming metropolitan area was rural. He says he has fond memories of growing up there, and that Habersham reminds him of how his hometown used to be. With both his personal experience and construction experience under his belt, he provides a unique insight to the challenges Habersham is facing with development.
“There’s a catch between keeping things the way they are, and then having to work with development and things moving in,” Baggett says. “People want a Walmart to go to, but they don’t want the traffic that comes with it. There’s a balance you have, so you have to listen to your taxpayers and your tax base and just give them the best quality that you can while still keeping people satisfied with the place that they grew up in.”
With almost a week at his new job done, he’s feeling optimistic about the future of Habersham County and his career there.
“I work at the discretion of the commissioners,” Baggett said. “I want to make sure that I’m doing a good job for them and also doing a good job for my tax base.”
