Tommy Walton son of T.P. Walton Jr. and Fannie Maude Walton born in Lufkin, TX in 1958 and moved from Crecy, Trinity County into Groveton when Tommy was 4 years old. Tommy went to school at Groveton ISD and graduated in 1976. In 1971 Tommy took over distribution of The Lufkin Daily News within the City of Groveton and threw the newspaper until he graduated Sam Houston State University in 1981 (1971 – 1981). After graduating Groveton ISD Tommy started college @ Sam Houston State University and graduated in (1980) with a BBA in Finance and a minor in Government. He then continued for a second BBA in Accounting graduating in (1981). Tommy has always been grateful for the newspaper in the lessons learned and opportunities that it has opened up for him over the years. Working his way thru high school and college had much to contribute toward his success. Tommy then went to work in Houston for Gulf Oil Company and traveled with their offshore drilling division Keydrill and eventually went thru the merger of Gulf and Chevron. During that time of the slowdown in the oil business and the merger Tommy found that Nucor in Grapeland, TX was looking for an accountant, upon applying Tommy was hired and at retirement had completed 32 years of service. Tommy was the Manager of Accounting and oversees all aspects of Accounting, Inventories, Property and Sales Taxes, Budgeting, Purchasing. Tommy has been around Groveton for most of his 63 years and looking forward to being Mayor of the City of Groveton. Tommy joined the Groveton City Council in November 2011 and is approaching 10 years of service (2011 – 2021) Groveton Mayor (2021 - Present)

The main focus of my candidacy will be the continuation of numerous projects we have in the process of construction now. The City of Groveton has been in an infrastructure rework starting with the sewer lines and then the water lines and will continue on into renovation of the sewer plant and ultimately working on our streets. Our town is small with a limited tax base and even though we have many needs we can only do this work as we obtain grants. If we attempted to do these projects with raising property taxes, we would soon have taxes so high that no one could afford to live here. My goal is to qualify and obtain as many grants as we possibly can. It will make our projects move slower than what I would like to see but we have to live within our means, and I think the voters of Groveton will expect no less.

Projects that we are currently working on; only because we have obtained grants.

1. As soon as the weather dries up and temperatures improve, I plan to start paving some streets, well maybe one street at a time. This year Council agreed to budget $100,000 per year for paving of city streets. At current prices that should allow us to pave ½ mile per year.

2. Water meter replacement is still on my list of things to do but after researching and hearing the horror stories from other Cities I have put this on hold till the technology improves and the costs come down. In the near future, we may be forced to replace meters that have a high lead content in them.

3. Wastewater retention pond renovation is currently in progress. As of the writing of this, our engineers are obtaining bids from contractors and should start dredging the retention ponds in June 2023. Council has also agreed to set aside $50,000 per year for future dredging and I am still looking for potential grants that will help us to dredge more.

4. Water Well #2 is a $2.6 million project that is first and foremost something that will take our undivided attention until it is completed. Depending on its flow rate when completed then we plan to start on water well #3 as soon as we can qualify for grants. We now have final approvals from Texas Water Development Board to proceed with drilling. Advertising for drillers will start at the end of April and we can begin drilling the test well.

5. Downtown Sidewalk, lighting, and handicapped access to our stores. This is a 1-million-dollar project that has been in the works for 6 years and is beginning to wind down and has really been a great asset to the looks of our downtown area.

6. Water distribution line replacement, 1.2-million-dollar project. This is an area that was not included in the original water line replacement because it had some of the newer lines at the time. That is now where some of our biggest leaks are occurring, and we need to replace those lines to stop water losses and stop incurring leak repair expenses. We have applied for grants for this project and have not qualified for the last two years but we are moving up on the list and should soon be able to qualify. At the present we have around 7 million dollars of construction in the works or planned. Most of these projects are not something that the citizens and voters see every day but are necessary to the running of an efficient city. This is the result of lots of planning and

lots of searching for grants. As your Mayor, I think it is important to have a 5-year plan looking into the future for our city & #39;s needs. Benjamin Franklin once said, if we fail to plan, we are planning to fail. This is a quote that I live by in my personal and professional life. We have many needs, and we cannot complete these all at once. I am not going to make promises that I cannot

deliver on. A few years back the State of Texas reworked Highway 287 thru town. I was told that it would be curbed and guttered and that would solve our drainage problem that occurs at Brookshire Brothers grocery. Well, come to find out it did not include storm gutters. But looking back on it we as a city need to work on gutters and streets that now currently dump water onto 287 for us to solve our drainage problem in that area. I hope to find but so far, I have found zero grants for the renovation of city streets. I have not given up and as we go forward maybe some will come available. The running of the City is not a one-man show, it involves the Mayor, the City Council, the office staff, the road and bridge staff, the police department, animal control, etc. The mayor is there to help guide the direction and Focused on our Future. I want to involve the citizens in special projects and make use of any professionals in the area for their advice and knowledge on projects that we have coming up. The beautification of the City of Groveton is also high on my list of priorities. As you know we have been working on cleaning up our town. We have hurt folks' feelings but we are being as fair as we possibly can and we have had good success and will continue to work toward that goal. I want everyone to be able to take pride in the City of Groveton and want to move here and be a place to raise their families. Involvement of our younger generations in city government, parents and grandparents bring your children to city council meetings. We need the involvement of younger folks in City and County governments. If we don’t involve our young folks now who will take over for us in years to come.

I will always be Focused on our Future.

Mayor Tommy Walton