[ September 21, 2023 ] I was asked to run for Jasper City Council as someone who liked the qualities of rural England that I had found also embraced in rural America.

Sadly, I have noted a deterioration in the quality of life for everyone in the Jasper region, caused, I believe, by people who failed to understand the value of the traditions maintained in the mountain communities.

Things such as keeping the roads in good condition so that accidents are prevented, keeping the parks and other open spaces clean and well cared for, keeping the police and emergency services as happy with their roles in society, recognizing and rewarding experience whenever possible.

Beyond that I want to take a good look at how the new Charter differs from the old and, where necessary for the good of the community, to reverse policies I find that have been detrimental to the city.

Below is information on my background:

ENGLAND:
From 1966 to 1994 worked in the newspaper and magazine industry. Rose from junior reporter to News Editor in 6 years on department store/fashion magazine that was equivalent to Women's Wear Daily in USA.

Went on to become Deputy Editor of a shoe magazine then the Chief Copy Editor of the No. 1 auto magazine before joining Britain's second largest national Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Express, as Deputy Chief Copy Editor.

Left that organzation eight years later due to a staff reorganization ordered by its then new Sports Editor (he was fired six months later).

After a period of freelance work on every other major daily and Sunday national newspaper I was appointed Deputy Sports Editor of The European newspaper. The death in 1991 by drowning of Robert Maxwell, its founder, forced me back into the freelance market before I came to Florida to work two assignments with the Globe magazine organization, in January/February and again in April, 1994.

USA:
Moved permanently to America in August 1994, after marriage to a Realtor with Re/Max Delray Beach, FL and as the US Correspondent for a British medical magazine, on an I-Visa. Later that year was granted a Green Card. Joined Re/Max early in 1995 after a period working and becoming the top sales agent for an apartment rental agency. Eighteen months later my wife and I left Re/Max after the broker closed the Delray Beach office and we started Keller Williams, Delray Beach with other former Re/Max Realtors.

In February 1997, I joined Arrow Exterminators at their new Boca Raton branch and became their sole termite inspector for an area stretching from North Palm Beach to Miami, from the ocean to the Everglades.

In September of that year moved to Georgia to work in Arrow's Alpharetta branch, then its Northpoint branch as chief termite technician, then its Dunwoody branch in the same position.
On December 11, 2006 I became a United States Citizen.

After 17 years with Arrow Exterminators my services were terminated after being falsely accused, in September, 2014, of bad driving on Hwy 372 south of Ball Ground. I subsequently learned there is a group of commuter drivers in sedans who call the phone numbers shown on the rear of company trucks and accusing the drivers of bad driving. Arrow Exterminators believed the words of an anonymous caller and not its senior staff member of 17 years.

In the spring of 2015 I joined Daniel & Lawson Pest Control in Jasper as chief termite technician, responsible for annual house inspections and quarterly checks of the bait station system that surrounded many of our clients' homes. Just before the 2016 Presidential Election, I and, later, others were let go by the owner due to a lack of growth among termite and pest control contracts.

It was at that time that I decided, at the age of 70, to retire.

Please contact via email at doriangibson@gmail.com or call 770-367-9124.