Wakulla County Commissioner Lynn Artz has announced that she will not seek a second term in 2012.

“Though I would love to continue to serve the citizens of Wakulla County, I must take a break to focus on my family.  I hope to return in four years” Artz said.

“I have been struggling with this decision since last fall,” Artz revealed.  “There is so much more that I wanted to accomplish.”  Artz expressed regret about not being able to continue her work with energy efficiency and conservation, smart growth, and environmental protection.  “As the economy picks up and the pace of development begins to accelerate, we need to take a different approach to the land use decisions we make or our problems with sprawl, traffic congestion, and infrastructure deficits will only get worse”  Artz said.

Though Artz wishes that she had been able to accomplish more, she said “I’m proud of what I’ve been able to achieve despite tough economic times, vacant staff positions, administrative turmoil and turnover, and an increasingly conservative Board.”

Artz is particularly proud of her success is in the grants arena.  She wrote the only ARRA job-creation grant that Wakulla County received, a tree-planting grant designed to support employment for nurseries, arborists, and landscaping companies.  She wrote other successful grants to assist with Wakulla Gardens, the Crawfordville Town Plan, and the Wildflower Project along 98.  Artz also is proud of her work on behalf of youth and with regard to the Community Center.

Artz said she is grateful to the many people who have helped and supported her work and is “sorry to disappoint the people who have been urging or expecting me to run for re-election in November.”  To lessen her guilt about stepping down, Artz said that she has been trying without success to recruit a like-minded person to run in her place.

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