Bill Baker Makes His Case to be Mayor of Enterprise

Bill Baker is challenging incumbent Bill Cooper to be the next Mayor of Enterprise, Alabama. The two will face off in a runoff election on Tuesday, September 23. Voting will take place at the Moose Hope Gym (421 E. Lee Street), connected to the Enterprise Recreation and Aquatics Center between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM.

All eligible voters may vote in the runoff. You do not have to have voted in the August 26 election to vote in the runoff.

Baker, a Veteran and long-time Enterprise resident, spoke briefly with ALPolitics.com about the problems he sees facing the city, and what he will do to address them.

”Right now, the City of Enterprise has a huge debt,” Baker said. “We also have real problems heading to us. I just read an article in the Army Times, not less than five minutes ago, that they’re cutting 6500 jobs. That's manned aircraft pilots in the Army. What does that mean for Fort Rucker? That means they're going to train less pilots. That means they need fewer IPs. That means they need fewer mechanics, a lot fewer supply folks. That translates back to fewer dollars flowing into the city of Enterprise.”

“Enterprise has not pulled any new business or industry into our area in the last eight years. We've got to find industry, so these individuals who are going to be out of a job here over the next couple of years can gravitate to new industry, and keep that money flowing. If not, the City of Enterprise is really going to be in a financial hurt,” Baker predicted.

“I'm a conservative. When you go from $40 million in debt in 2000, to $120 million of bond debt in 2025, that's not conservative spending in my book. You know, that means somebody's not watching the pocketbooks,” he said.

Baker went on to say, “The other thing is, some of these capital projects that they're investing in are not making Enterprise a destination. The best example I can give you is the new swimming pool. It probably should have been an indoor pool, and it should have been Olympic-sized standards so we could have the high school and the college do swim competitions here in Enterprise, bringing other people's money, other people's capital, to our city, spending it in our restaurants, spending it in our stores, buying our gas. But, they didn't. They made it an outdoor pool, not Olympic size. So, it's no longer a destination. It now becomes a sustainment problem for the city.”

“We got brand new soccer fields—no parking. It’s great to have a place for the kids to go and play soccer, but if you don't have a place for mom and dad to park, they're not going to hang around. And, by the way, you're not going to bring the tournaments here that you should be bringing here with these new fields. Those are just two examples I can give you of gross capital dollars being invested without a thought of the return on investment,” Baker said.

When asked to summarize why the people of Enterprise should vote for him, Baker quickly answered:

“I spent 24 years in the Army, 23 years in defense contracting. I've been working for the same defense contractor for the last 23 years. So, if anything I can give you, is loyalty, I can promise you that the City of Enterprise is extremely important to Bill Baker. We have our children who live here, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren are going to be living in Enterprise. I want them to have the quality of life I've enjoyed for 30 years here in Enterprise, and the only way we're going to do that is growing Enterprise in the right directions.”

For more information on Baker, his platform or campaign, visit Baker4Mayor.com or follow him on Facebook.