Martin Says Goodbye As Baxter Mayor

Calling it a “terribly hard meeting,” Baxter Mayor John Martin said he is proud of the work done by the Aldermen, city staff and local residents.

Martin lost to write-in candidate Danny Holmes in the August 1 election. Martin’s tenure ends after eight years in office.

“I always answer the phone,” Martin said. “I never shirked any phone call. I never shirked any meeting that people asked me to attend. I’ve always been there. But you’ve got to work with this. You got to really want to do this. I really wanted to do that. All I’m asking is that the city of Baxter continue their growth and continue on the path that we are now.”

Martin said the job may be labeled part-time, but he always saw it as full-time. Despite feelings among some Baxter residents against growth, Martin said it is the lifeblood of the community.

“You ask every municipality in the world, ‘How do you survive?’ You survive on growth,” Martin said. “The thing about it, if you stop the growth, what your alternative is, you’re going to raise taxes because you’ve got to have the money to support what salaries that you’ve already got in place, everything that you have and everything that we have bought, all the equipment when I came in to office, this city was broke.”

Martin said the employees need good wages to move forward and to expand services. He said the work of the Board of Aldermen only happens with employees doing the legwork.

“One thing that I really respect the board for everything for the past eight years, I think the board has had a confidence in what I’ve done done, what has been accomplished,” Martin said. “But I didn’t do it alone. But we got a lot of good things that’s going to happen in our city.”

Martin said he plans to fish and care for his sick wife. He will continue to work on the industrial recruitment he started some two years ago. At least one prospect showing interest in locating in Baxter.