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A Recycled Campaign: ECUA’s Walker Practices What He Preaches
August 20, 2012
District 5 ECUA board member Larry Walker is one of those men that likes to practice what he preaches.
He first ran for office back in 1988 — winning a seat on the ECUA board by a margin of just 28 votes — partially to see if he was right in all the college courses he had been teaching in public policy and public administration.
ECUA started voluntary curbside recycling for customers in January 2009. But recycling wasn’t new for Walker. He had, in way, been running a recycled campaign for years.
By the time he ran for office again in 2000, Walker had decided that recycling was a good thing. His used campaign signs were stored away for the next election.
There were a few modifications to the campaign signs along the way. He ordered red bumper stickers with the word “Republican” to cover up the word “Democrat” after a party switch. Otherwise, many of the Walker campaign signs along the roadways in North Escambia in 2012 were the same signs as 2000.
It was not just an environmental green decision…Walker estimates he save about $4,000 per campaign by using the recycled signs.
Friday, just three days after winning reelection, Walker was out in his pickup truck collecting campaign signs for storage. When asked if that meant he would be running again in 2016, he replied, “well, I’ve got to do something with all these signs”.
Pictured top: ECUA District 5 board member Larry Walker ready to remove a campaign sign from alongside Highway 4 in Bratt Friday morning. Pictured below: Walker talks about the recycled campaign signs in the back of his pickup at the Bratt Crossroad. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
9 Responses to “A Recycled Campaign: ECUA’s Walker Practices What He Preaches”
After meeting with WR for this interview, I continued to pick up signs. In the process, I discovered that I had used three signs that dated all the way back to my first campaign in 1988! I was blown away myself to find these old-timers still in use.
For the record, I put out 475 signs in this campaign and 99.8 percent of them were down within one week of the election.
An interesting side note to this story: the original plywood signs we used back in the ‘88 and ‘92 campaigns are now being used as siding/insulation on a barn up in Molino where we stored signs for many years! Even when retired, they can be put to good use!
J. Walker (son)
Sorry bama but some of still like it is. Small town Cantonment and Molino. If u did not grow up here u will not understand. Some people do not want growth, we want peace and guiet.
REGARDING:
“wasted metal that could be recycled. RECYCLE, RECYCLE, RECYCLE!!!!”
Anything which HAS been used, CAN be used.
David for recognizing resources
CONGRATS, Mr. Walker! Glad to see you back for another term. Any time we have had a problem Mr. Walker has taken care of it.
I think a town hall meeting to discuss projections for the next four years is a very good idea. We here in the north end are usually ignored by the downtown group.
Keep up the good work.
Recycle, reuse, reduce! That is what we all need to live by. We owe it to our planet! Love Earth and live green!
thank you mr walker for promptly removing your signs . i hope the other candidates will follow your example and get those signs off our streets
I to think you should recycle, but I also think the county (ECUA) should give back to the commuity with the profits from the recycle program. Now since Mr. Walker has been re-elected, he needs to start with the sewer project going north on hwy 29. We need growth from Cantonment north and the sewer project is the first thing needed. Without sewer lines we have no commercial growth!! Maybe a town hall style meeting, where Mr. Walker can let us know the future plans for district 5!!
Look at “The Secret Life of Garbage” sometime…it will definitely make you want to recycle. I think every school should show that film. There are 5 large plastic reefs in the ocean destroying the wildlife. There are areas where the plastic is washed up on islands from the currents. There are dangerous chemicals in out landfills and wasted metal that could be recycled. RECYCLE, RECYCLE, RECYCLE!!!!