Fourth time for Cromer to win election
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – One clear sign about a public official doing a very good job is that the opposition is nowhere to be seen when it is time to run for another term.
If that rule applies at all, then Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer has to know he is doing something right.
Qualifying was held last week for the March 26 city elections and Cromer was able to walk into his second term unopposed.
It was the fourth time Cromer has run for office and had no opposition. The first time was when he ran for a second term on the Slidell City Council, then he ran for an open seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives with no one willing to take him on. When he ran for a second term in Baton Rouge he was again unopposed, meaning the most recent cake walk to victory was the fourth time he was fortunate enough to avoid what can at times be a long and challenging campaign.
“The funny thing is that I actually like campaigning, at least for the times I’ve done it,” Cromer said with a bit of a laugh. “I like getting out and meeting the people, and listening to what is on their minds.
“As for winning my second term as mayor of Slidell I couldn’t feel more gratified since I believe it means the public thinks our team is doing a good job,” he added.
In a little less than four years on the job Cromer has put together a pretty impressive resume of action and results.
Topping the list might be the confidence being shown by Slidell shoppers that has led to soaring sales tax revenue numbers. In Cromer’s first two years of budgets he saw the city enjoy surpluses of over $2 million each year. Then in year three the City Council and Cromer had the joy this past December of figuring out what to do with an incredible surplus that topped $5 million.
“The sales tax numbers tell me people feel good about the future, and about Slidell,” Cromer said. “And it says we are drawing a lot of out-of-towners here to shop. Obviously, they like what we offer here, and the atmosphere of our community.”
In the past four years, the mayor was on the winning side of two huge stories in Slidell’s business picture, first playing a key role in the announcement that Amazon had picked Slidell out of the entire parish to build a distribution center that is bringing approximately 400 jobs here, with the lowest pay starting at $15 an hour with excellent benefits. The center, located on Fremaux Town Center property right on Old Spanish Trail, is expected to open in the coming months.
The other business story that Cromer picked the winning side was when a California company wanted to build a casino just outside of the Slidell city limits. Cromer was one of the early public officials to come out against the casino, citing his research that showed it would likely hurt small business here. Last December the casino was strongly defeated in a parishwide vote with 63 percent of the public coming out against it.
Cromer also partnered with the Slidell Police Department to get City Council support for the most comprehensive pay plan overhaul in the history of the department. It brought city policemen to having the best starting pay of any department in the parish, and provides additional incentives to help officers avoid needing to work extensive overtime.
The mayor has put millions of dollars into upgrading all manner of city parks and recreational facilities, and said there will be another major announcement on that front coming out in the near future.
Additionally, Cromer said he is close to announcing “two more distribution centers that will be opening in Slidell, one of them to go public in the next three months.”
Looking at goals he has in the next few years, Cromer said he now has the city beginning work on a comprehensive evaluation of the city drainage lines after rains last year showed water backing up in areas it previously did not.
“Maybe it’s development here or there, but we have begun to see about four or five areas of the city where water is not draining fast enough after some of our heavy spring rains,” he said. “And it’s happening in areas that didn’t have problems.”
The city is beginning to evaluate the drainage lines with cameras to look for cracks or leakage that would hinder rainwater moving out of the city fast enough.
Cromer said he expects the entire study to take about nine months to a year, then they have the money to decide where larger lines or replacement lines would need to be put in.
“I’m honored to get to serve four more years. This is the best job I’ve ever had, and I honestly enjoy coming to work each day,” he said. “Without worrying about a campaign, I am able to focus right away on the things we can do to make Slidell the best place possible for our families to live and work.”