The new Jefferson mayor isn’t exactly new, but has returned to the position.

Craig Berry served three consecutive four year terms as Jefferson Mayor, from 2012-2020, before being defeated by challenger Matt Gordon in the 2019 election. Berry then decided to run again for mayor last year and was the only name on the ballot. He talks about some of the reasons why he wanted to throw his hat back in the ring for mayor.

“I had been asked by a few department heads in the city and numerous citizens of Jefferson to run again. I just want to make sure that things are rolling smoothly, which you know, there’s a little contention going on in the town now. But we need to get back to where we’re moving along rather than being stuck on one item or topic.” 

One noticeable change that Mayor Berry has made at the previous city council meetings in January was sticking to a more strict time limit during open forum.

“I had checked with the (Greene County) School Board and I also checked with the (Greene County) Board of Supervisors, they have a time limit of three minutes. I know sometimes people were shut off before their three minutes were done (and) sometimes they were let go for ten minutes. So I decided to just be the same as these other two elected entities. I just have them run three minutes.”     

Mayor Berry is excited to see some more development in the downtown area with newer businesses and the relocation of others. He is also wanting to restart a “Mayor’s Roundtable.” Berry says when he was last mayor, he scheduled periodic meetings with the other mayors in the county to discuss and try to find solutions with various items that came up.