By JENNIFER RAYMOND

jraymond@thewakullanews.net

Millie Harrison describes herself as a common sense person with a bit of feistiness. And someone who wants to help people.

She is also running for the district 2 county commission seat.

She said she lives paycheck-to-paycheck like a lot of people.

"I want to go in there for them," she said.

The difference between her and other candidates, she said, is that she isn't a politician and she is running for the little person.

"I'm like them," she said.

Harrison moved to Crawfordville 11 years ago from Leon County.

"I found a piece of property that I fell in love with," she said.

She is an office manager and bookkeeper for South Georgia Brick and has worked there for 14 years.

She decided to run after she thought about remodeling her home and was going to be charged a building fee, as well as an impact fee. She said the impact fee was going to be around $1,100.

In this economy, Harrison said charging the impact fee isn't right and she wanted to find out more about it.

"I want to get in there to do something about it," she said.

As far as growth in the county, Harrison said it's good, but things need to slow down.

"We need to take care of what we've got already," she said.

Like resurfacing the roads and removing signs of closed businesses, she said.

She added that the county needs to be dressed up and people need to be shown the good things the county has to offer.

"This is a beautiful place," she said.

She added that keeping the character of Wakulla County is what's important.

Although growth is good, right now the county is in a building slump, she said.

She wouldn't support a moratorium on new construction, just some restrictions that cause it to slow down.

She said there is no need for the building of anymore spec homes because there are already 400 homes in the county that have never been lived in.

"Wakulla County can't stand a lot of buildings," she said.

But, if people want to build in the county, maybe a break can be given on the impact fee if the company uses materials and labor from Wakulla County, she said.

Harrison said if elected, she doesn't plan on sitting quiet at commission meetings.

"I'm going to open my mouth," she said.

She also said she hopes to start open air town hall meetings so that people can talk to commissioners without the intimidation of the commission chambers.

"People react to commissioners like they are off-limits," she said. "They can come out and say what they want."

She added that after seeing the budget, she is left with a lot of questions.

"I'm going to make the county accountable," she said.

One of the biggest issues right now is the oil spill and the possibility of it making its way to Wakulla County, she said.

"One setback like this could cripple us," she said.

Another issue is big companies pushing out the mom and pop stores, she said.

"They have been the backbone of the county," she said.

She wants to find a way to help those mom and pop stores.

She said she hopes Wakulla County will continue to take care of each other like a family.