ORANGE PARK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0While Chuck Lindholm presses through campaign season and awaits the results of the April 14 Super Tuesday Municipal Election, his crusade has revolved around one concept: No excuses, just results.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to really sharpen our\u00a0pencil\u00a0and start prioritizing,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lindholm\u00a0casted\u00a0his bid for Seat 1 on the Town Council dais on Feb. 2. Success for him, he said, is finally leaning in and asking the\u00a0hard questions\u00a0that no one else will. As a faithful town resident, Lindholm said\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0seen the ins and outs of local leadership. And\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0looking forward to bringing something new to the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His story in Orange Park began back in 1986.\u00a0A nine-year Navy veteran, Lindholm was stationed in the area for pilot training when he met his wife, Susan, a lifelong resident of the town. They moved quite a bit but always found their way back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lindholm worked for Vision Care for almost 17 years, and then moved to Johnson and Johnson, a fortune 500 company, for almost 30 years. During that time, he began regularly attending town council meetings, where he soon sought out ways to contribute more directly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He joined the Historic Preservation Board and the Parks and Recreation Committee, where they carried out many significant initiatives, including rebuilding the playground at Clark Park, establishing Gano Dog\u00a0Park\u00a0and rehabilitating the pavilion and restrooms at T.C. Miller Community Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This allowed him to gain even more familiarity with the local community and the government that ran it. He wanted a seat at the table.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it\u2019d be fun to take a stand, [and] run for office,\u201d he said\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his time in the corporate world, Lindholm said he spent a lot of time working with national governments and local communities to meet critical healthcare needs. Lindholm said his career experience has made him familiar with not only business, but fiscal responsibility. Something\u00a0his campaign is keen on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason [I\u2019m]\u00a0running\u00a0was because the town\u2019s budget\u00a0has exploded\u00a0in the last four years.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0gone up\u00a0[by]\u00a0over 130%. When you think about\u00a0that,\u00a0mathematically,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a025% per year for four\u00a0straight\u00a0years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spending has gotten ahead of the town\u2019s ability to bring in revenue.\u00a0And yet, the\u00a0town\u00a0continues to manage its budget.\u00a0So, how do they close that gap?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The biggest issue that he wants to address, he said, is balancing the town\u2019s growing budget and sinking revenue.\u00a0\u00a0He said right now the town is relying too heavily on grants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to address our bottom line just from\u00a0a\u00a0straight profit loss.\u00a0The town, in some ways, is a business.\u00a0If\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got costs and\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got revenue,\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0got to figure out how to balance.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0a big one.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a huge one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0continue to keep\u00a0spending. Particularly if the revenue’s not there. The way to address that is to increase taxes.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0what\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0been doing,\u201d said Lindholm, pointing to the town\u2019s doubled costs for water and\u00a0sewer,\u00a0and garbage collection as examples.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lindholm said he questions the effect that spending is having on residents, who in turn must deal with rising taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another challenge he hopes to address if he succeeds in the election is building revenue streams to offset hefty taxes, such as private\/public business partnerships.\u00a0He also said he has\u00a0thought\u00a0of\u00a0collaborating\u00a0with the Clay County Chamber of Commerce\u00a0to make that happen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0excited about that.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had a lot of experience and success in business and driving some innovation and growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery creative dollar that we\u2019re able to generate on the business side is an opportunity to build our revenue,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Savoring Orange Park\u2019s small-town feel is another priority, all while\u00a0maintaining\u00a0the amount of traffic that keeps the town visible. Although\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0no significant residential growth in the town, which has more than 9,000 residents, he said that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0important to look at other outlets. While living in Singapore, he said,\u00a0Prime Minister\u00a0Lee Kuan Yew\u00a0led the small island with little to no resources. But he catapulted it onto the world stage, simply by asking questions and pulling the country by\u00a0its bootstraps.\u00a0Lindholm\u00a0hopes to do the same with Orange Park.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that we\u2019re going to go onto the world stage\u00a0for the most part, but the model showcases what real leadership can do,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lindholm said\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0not running to be everyone\u2019s best bud, but to bring out a rigor that he believes the council\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0had in a while.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0hoping to bring new conversations,\u00a0direction\u00a0and change.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a judgement issue.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a leadership issue. Why haven\u2019t we been asking the\u00a0hard questions\u00a0to sort of figure out where those dollars and cents have been going?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE PARK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0While Chuck Lindholm presses through campaign season and awaits the results of the April 14 Super Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":["post-198528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-argyle","tag-clay-county","tag-doctors-inlet","tag-eagle-harbor","tag-fleming-island","tag-green-cove-springs","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-keystone-heights","tag-lake-asbury","tag-margaret","tag-middleburg","tag-orange-park","tag-pace-island","tag-penney-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}