By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

CALERA – After serving on Calera’s City Council for two terms, Mike Roberson has decided to run for mayor.

“I felt like I’ve run my course on the council,” Roberson said. “It was my time to run for mayor or my time to move on. There are some things I want to see finished.”

Roberson, a Calera native, said he is concerned about Calera’s commercial development and retail.

“We have a lot of property that’s just waiting for someone to put a business there,” he said. “It’s not the city that owns the property, it’s individuals. We need to be a mediator between interested parties and the owners of the property. I don’t know if that approach has been taken.

“We need to figure out exactly what we have in that area,” he added. “We need to get aggressive with it. I just feel like we’ve dropped the ball in going out and recruiting businesses.”

Roberson, who has been an electrician for 21 years, said he is “very aware of the ins and outs of everyday business.” He also said he looks to support the growth of the police and fire departments.

“There’s going to come a time when we’re going to need more firemen, and I want to be more proactive with that,” he said.

“The rest of the departments in the city are very important, garbage pick-up, water issues, sewage plant, gas,” he said. “We’re such a diverse company, and there are so many different departments that you have to manage them all together.”

Roberson said he plans on continuing the plan to build a bypass around downtown Calera.

“I just want to enhance Calera,” Roberson said. “Take the museums we have, the railroad museum and the fire museum. We don’t run those, but we can help, and we can enhance the areas around them.

“I know we’ve all talked about the historical part of our downtown. It could be really nice,” he added. “We have a historical committee, and I would like to sit with the committee and start making plans for the future.”

For more information, search for “Mike Roberson for mayor” on Facebook.com.