Richard Speake has lived in and out of Auburn for all of his life. In his latest stint in Auburn, he has been back for 3 and half years and wants to serve as the next mayor of Auburn.
Speake, a carpenter and artist, is concerned with the direction Auburn is going in, especially when it comes to the environment.
Improve Environment
He jokes that he is the “green candidate” in the six person mayoral race, but that’s because most of his improvement plans for Auburn involve improving Auburn’s environment too.
Styrofoam is a major concern for Speake. Often times he will watch vehicles, including city ones, drive down the road and run over a Styrofoam cup or tray. That item the bursts into hundreds of small pieces that are impossible to pick up, Speak said.
Speake wants to rid Auburn of Styrofoam to make the community a cleaner place to live, both visually and environmentally.
“Seaside, Florida, for instance, has banned Styrofoam,” Speak said as he listed several U.S. locations that have banned Styrofoam. “It’s a lot of places where you’re just not allowed to use Styrofoam. I’m tired of picking the stuff up.”
He also wants to look to adding an electric mass transit system. This would solve the lack of public transportation issue without straining to the environment, Speake said.
“There’s an electric bus, mass transit system going on,” Speake said. “A municipal bus line that anybody can use, not just Tiger Transit.”
Improve City
To further his improvements of Auburn’s environment Speake is taking to the skies filled with cranes and rising construction projects.
When you can hardly see Samford Hall anymore there’s a problem, Speake said.
“Finish the ones (construction projects) that are already under contract,” Speak said. “Don’t renew any contracts for two years until we get back to the same level of living. Get the quality of life back.”
Speake is not anti-industry, he said. He said he wants to continue to bring industries into Auburn and grow the industrial park.
Another step for Speake is to move the University away from using the city’s police force as the campus police.
“There’s no reason the University can’t afford its own police force like it used to,” Speake said. “They’re getting over on Auburn.”
Speake also wants to look into Auburn’s water supplies. He said he is concerned that with a drought, the city would quickly run out of water and water bills would skyrocket.
Why Mayor?
After floating in and out of Auburn for the majority of his life, Speake has seen the city go through many changes.
He wants to be a part of the next round of changes to ensure Auburn takes the right steps, Speake said.
“I’ve been kind of fed up with the way things have been running around here,” Speake said.
Since he was a child, Speake has had a vision, he said. He wants to see that vision become a reality through Auburn.
“I’ve always had an eye for it,” Speake said. “I’ve seen the perfect world. When I was 5 years old I had a vision like how I was supposed to live, and we’re just not there.”
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
