Tony Powers

When I was in school we didn’t have half the cool stuff around downtown and Decatur really shut down at five o-clock and all the people left. There really wasn’t a vibrant downtown. There was not a lot going on, a lot of people were leaving and the population was a lot older. Decatur was sort of that place where your grandparents live. Things progressively got better but yeah, when I was here there wasn’t the down town scene there really wasn’t much to see or do.

In many cases you often hear the phrase the only way you make a difference is at the local level. At the local level you can pass things and do things that really impact our day to day lives here and it makes Decatur a much better place. Years and years ago there was a plan started to help revitalize downtown Decatur so as that plan came to fruition downtown got a little better, people started moving back in we started getting a little bit more development and so there was this plan to transform Decatur from what is was to what it is now. It wasn’t just an overnight thing, all of these things that are happening are a direct result of years and years of planning. The stuff I am doing now as a politician or a local elected official will impact the things that you get to see and you get to do if you decide to come back to Decatur when you are older.