Moore, Dyer and Gordon qualify unopposed in city

This marks Moore’s fifth successful city election after getting his start in local politics in 2009 via a brief appointment to the council, and he went on to win four consecutive council terms outright.

In February, longtime mayor Jim Conley announced he would be stepping down from office with just under a year left in his term, so the council appointed Moore as mayor at Conley’s recommendation, and he has served in that position since March.

“I am honored and humbled to serve the citizens of Blairsville,” Moore said. “We have a great team including the City Council and city employees who contribute daily to make Blairsville a great place to live and work.”

Moore said the biggest difference between being a councilman and mayor is that there are “a lot of moving parts in the day-to-day management” of the city, but he chose to run again because he enjoys “being involved with the people and working on various opportunities that come up.”

Moving forward, Moore will be working primarily to serve “the daily needs of the community efficiently while keeping taxes low.”

“We are focused on infrastructure improvements,” Moore said. “These projects include water line upgrades, traffic improvements and safety on the roads, walkability, including lighting, and housing.

“We intend to work closely with other cities and state organizations to benchmark best practices for improvement. We intend to do everything we can to keep local businesses and the local economy thriving.”

Moore added that Blairsville is “extremely fortunate to have a City Council that works well together for the benefit of all,” including the other two unopposed qualifiers who will be returning in 2026, Dyer and Gordon.

Councilman Dyer is another City Hall mainstay, having first won election in 2010 to fill the remainder of an unexpired council term that ended December 2013, after which he successfully ran for three full terms. This, too, is Dyer’s fifth straight election in the city.

“The reason I first started back in August of 2010 was that I wanted to participate in a little bit of service and give-back to the community and county,” Dyer said. “(To this day), my main purpose for running is to serve the public.

“That may sound a little wishy-washy, but that’s the reason I’ve stayed in. It’s something I can do, something I enjoy, and I think it’s something fairly important.”

Long a top priority for him, Dyer looks forward to working with Moore and the council to build more sidewalks in town, particularly on Hunt-Martin Street, and he’d also like to see a sidewalk “all the way up to what we call the Old High School, and tie it into the new one,” and other places.

Additionally, Dyer wants to revisit his idea of enlarging city limits by two or three times to expand Blairsville from its current status as a “one-horse town,” but doing so in such a manner as to enable the city to grow its way into providing services for more households and businesses.

Another goal he hopes to accomplish is increasing public engagement at City Hall. As of the 2020 census, there were 616 city residents, and by press time, the city had 367 registered voters.

Still, past city elections have struggled to achieve beyond double-digit voter turnout, and Dyer wants to see more residents interested in the running of the city. Soon to be 89 years old, Dyer knows that others will be needed to serve in the years to come, like Councilman Gordon.

Gordon is a political newcomer, having been appointed to fill the remaining council term of Moore when he stepped up to serve as mayor beginning in March. Gordon’s initial interest in City Hall came earlier this year by way of a conversation with Moore, who is his neighbor and friend.

“I chose to run for City Council for the same reason I agreed to step in when Mayor Moore first approached me,” Gordon said. “I care about the community, and I want to be part of guiding our city’s growth while keeping it the kind of place where people are proud to live and work.”

In his brief stint so far behind the scenes of local government, Gordon has been surprised by just how much goes into running the city.

“Even though Blairsville is relatively small,” Gordon said, “there is still a lot of coordination and communication between departments to deliver and maintain all of the services residents expect.

“Over the summer, Mayor Moore took me on a tour to visit all of the departments so that I could gain a better understanding of how everything works. It was a great experience and allowed me to see the day-to-day operations.”

Over the next four-plus years, Gordon anticipates working with his fellow council members and Mayor Moore to continue “making decisions to improve the lives of Blairsville residents while also promoting policies that benefit our business owners.”

“Some things are already in the works, but I want to continue some of the infrastructure improvements downtown, like increasing sidewalks to promote walkability,” Gordon said. “I think Kristen (Bentley) and the (Downtown Development Authority) are doing a great job developing a plan and vision for downtown, and I would like to see some of these ideas become a reality.”