Joey Trogdon (Courtesy photo)
ASHEBORO – With a family legacy of involvement in City of Asheboro government, Joey Trogdon figured if he was going to participate this might be the last chance.
So he ran for a spot on the Asheboro city council and won in November.
“I thought about it in the past,” Trogdon said. “Then (around 2008) with the recession it was kind of all hands on deck to keep the business. Now seemed like a good time.”
His father, Joe Trogdon, spent about three decades in Asheboro politics, first on the city council and then as mayor. That service began in the 1970s.
For Joey Trogdon, he remembered getting out of school on Election Day so he could go to the polls to campaign for his father. Joe Trogdon died in 2013. The Post Office in Asheboro bears his name.
“I told some people, what he did was part-time (as mayor), but we always wanted to help pick up the slack in other areas because it was a time commitment,” Joey Trogdon said.
Several issues got the younger Trogdon’s attention and prompted him to pursue a spot on the council.
“I just thought we needed a change of direction,” he said. “With the population expected to increase tremendously, we’ve got to have our ducks in a row. Everything that comes with that, I think we need to keep an eye on what’s coming.”
Tax increases and the status of capital projects became a concern for Trogdon, who’s president of S.E. Trogdon & Sons Inc. general contractors. He also said he was uncomfortable with increasing price tags on projects at the Zoo City Sportsplex and McCrary Park – both of which remain incomplete.
“There’s other stuff people bring up that people want to do,” he said. “I think if we are going to do those things, we need to get the money and get it done. Not just piecemeal these things.”
Trogdon said Asheboro is fortunate to have a strong core group of workers in the city office. He said it has been a learning curve on reconnecting with many of the processes in place.
Trogdon, 63, is on the council for the first time. Yet his background of involvement because of his father’s role gives him a different perspective.
“I’m not a novice, but I’m still a rookie,” he said.
