George Hearring, founder and president of the Community Task Force, is campaigning for Place #3 on the Hartselle City Council, subject to the August 28 Municipal Election.

The 65-year-old Vietnam War veteran said he wants to be a councilman for everybody.

“I’m committed toward working with all citizens,” he pointed out, “because we are ‘Stronger Together.’ Two heads are better than one. When you have a cross-section of people working on a problem the better the chances of reaching a solution.”

Hearring served with the 18th Army Airborne Corps and has a partial disability resulting from his exposure to Agent Orange. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education, after having attended Calhoun Community College and Athens State University part-time and completing the required coursework on line over a period of 15 years.

He voluntary work with the Community Task Force involves being a mentor and a tutor for at-risk children in the community, working with the police department to prevent drug abuse and criminal activity and assisting the court system in helping struggling young people find purpose in life and become good citizens.

He is also an active member of Hartselle First Missionary Baptist Church where he serves as chairman of the deacon board, a member of Hartselle’s Board of zoning adjustment and an alumnus of Hartselle Citizens Police Task Force.

Hearring is a retired state employee with 25 years of service at the North Alabama Mental Health Hospital in Decatur and a former weekly newspaper publisher in Huntsville and Decatur. He is currently employed at Sparkman School as a physical education instructor.

Hearring said, if elected, he will work to promote business and job growth, be a responsible decision maker with taxpayer money and address blight and ignored property issues.

“One of my main concerns is our children and their futures,” Herring pointed out. “I’d like to find a way to help reduce the dropout rate in our high schools, especially with respect to the minority population.

His campaign platform also included the following:

•Address traffic safety and flow in the vicinity of schools and residential neighborhoods

•Address the need for increased use of technology in our schools

•Address the need for the restoration of medical services lost with the closing of Hartselle Medical Center.

•Address the need for access to broadband service in the city.

Hearring and his wife Molly have been married 44 years and have lived in Hartselle since 1976. They have four adult children, eight grandchildren and a great-grandson.