LORI LINDSEY TO QUALIFY FOR CITY OF THOMASTON MAYOR PRO TEM

My name is Lori Lindsey, well actually Loraine Lindsey but everyone knows me as Lori. I was born in Thomaston and lived here off and on until 1973 when my dad died and we moved back to Thomaston for good when I was 10. I went to Atwater School, Worthy and then graduated from R. E. Lee. I married young, raised a family (two children) and now have 6 grandchildren ranging from 5 to 21.. I lived in the county for 31 years until my divorce when I moved to the city in 2013, where I have lived for 8 years. Currently I live on Avalon Rd and have been here for 6 years.

I work full time, remotely for Piedmont Healthcare where I am the Manager of Oncology Analytics for 4 hospitals (we collect data on our cancer patients for research purposes). I have been in the Cancer Registry field for 30 years and with Piedmont for 15, having run my own contract/outsourcing company before that. I served on the American Cancer Society local board as President many years ago and actually co-chaired the very first Relay for Life held in Thomaston. I have also served in many roles, including President, Vice-President and Education Chair, for the Georgia Tumor Registrar Association.

Though this will be my initiation into local politics, I do have a passion for seeing our little town of Thomaston become the best it can be. By listening to the people in our community, I hope to bring some of the residents' concerns to the forefront and work to make improvements where we can. I am a very determined person, some call it stubborn but I like to say passionate and determined, and I would like a chance to play a role in Thomastons future. Most know me from the Save R E Lee campaign and yes I am passionate about that BUT I want you to know that it has nothing to do with Confederate history. Nothing at all. I want to save the history of our high school and a school that has stood for 150 years. Sure it has the name R E Lee but to me it is about the memories of our alma mater and all the thousands of folks who graduated from that school. It has to do with the teachers we had and the memories we made. And, more importantly, I feel that our time as a city government can be better spent dealing with so many other important issues other than a topic that state law prohibits anyway. We have a serious problem with homelessness here that has not been addressed and desperately needs to be. I'd like to see our downtown become more active in the evenings with things to do for people of all ages and backgrounds, bringing us all together as a community. Drugs and crime are increasing and root causes need to be determined and steps taken to put a stop to it before it becomes much worse. And, we need to clean up Thomaston and make it a town of which we can all be proud.

I hope to hear from the folks of Thomaston and hear what YOU think needs to be done for our city. After all, this position is to SERVE all of the city and that is what I hope to do.