Race for presiding commissioner: Parmer wants to work to bring businesses to county

With a blue-collar work history and experience gained during the handling of a major flood, Dutchtown's town clerk Doyle Parmer said he will be a presiding commissioner who makes job creation the top priority and puts the residents of Cape Girardeau County before any special agenda.

Parmer said he knows what it is like to work hard for a living and he will use that knowledge in making his decisions if elected presiding commissioner.

"I'm not a silver spoon person," he said. "I haven't had it easy all my life in any way. Everything I have, I have earned. I understand what it means to be a blue collar worker, so I won't spend tax dollars unwisely."

Parmer, a 53-year-old Republican from Dutchtown, currently owns Dutchtown Enterprises, which consists of Prestigious Lawn Care and Dutch Cleaning. He is a graduate of Cape Girardeau Central High School and attended one year of trade school at Sikeston Vocational Technical Center, where he was licensed as a union-certified welder. If elected, he said he would use experience gained in working in factories, manufacturing and owning a business to address job growth in the county.

Parmer said he thinks businesses need new incentives to locate in the county. He said for the past few years Cape Girardeau County has lost out to Perryville, Mo., and Sikeston, Mo., when it comes to attracting new business. He said he would travel to these areas to see what they are doing to attract businesses and ask businesses why they did not settle in Cape Girardeau County.

He wants to give businesses incentives to come to the county, but does not know any specifics at this time. He said because he is not a member of county government it is impossible to know anything more than generalities.

"I don't know the specific answer, but I do know you have to entice companies to come here," he said. "We have a good work force. We have a good base."

Much of Parmer's government experience comes from being the Dutchtown clerk, a position that gained increased responsibilities during the flood of 2008 and motivated him to become more active.

"Until we got flooded in '08, I was pretty much the trustee that sat back and let other people run everything because I like to play well with others," he said.

During the flood, Parmer took on the role of emergency management coordinator and was in charge of a massive waste removal effort and communicating with state and federal agencies.

"I had to get 60 tons of flood stuff out of there and I had to do it quickly due to health reasons," he said. "I looked at the guidelines for FEMA. There were a lot of things to look at."

He also facilitated public meetings and a town vote on whether to accept a buyout or a build a new levee. The town eventually decided to build a levee.

Parmer looks to his handling of the flood as not only his greatest challenge as clerk, but also his greatest achievement. Angie Crutsinger, chairwoman of the Dutchtown board of trustees, worked closely with Parmer during the flood and said his leadership was important to the town's recovery. With all of the governmental procedures and red tape that accompany natural disasters, Crutsinger said she was glad to have Parmer at the helm.

"He had previous experience that gave him contacts," she said. "He had worked with the engineers before. He did a lot of organizing things. He was on top of a lot of stuff. He didn't just accept an answer. He fought for the town."

Crutsinger said after working with Parmer for years, she is supportive of his campaign and lists his perseverance and commitment as his strengths.

"He is persistent," she said. "He is one person that if he says he's going to do something, he is going to do it. You can depend on that."

Parmer said the flood taught him an important lesson, and it is one he will use every day as presiding commissioner.

"You have to listen to people's concerns, their needs and their problems and try to solve them," he said. "That is what I did [during the flood]. I believe the county residents deserve a person who understands their pain. Someone who will put their concerns first, instead of being a politician and putting their abstract feelings first."

cbartholomew@semissourian.com

243-8600