Smith looks back on service

By Dale Liesch | Dadeville Record

Originally published 12:47 p.m., October 30, 2008
Updated 12:47 p.m., October 30, 2008

Tuesday marked the final council meeting as Dadeville mayor for Joe Smith. The meeting also ended 38 years of public service for Smith.

Smith, who had been in the furniture business before starting his life in politics, had most recently served as Dadeville mayor for 12 years from 1996 until 2008 until being defeated by challenger Mike Ingram.

However, Smith started in politics in 1969 when he ran for city council seeking his first chance at public service.

“I always enjoyed helping people and being in politics is a great way to help people,” Smith said. “I was in the furniture business first and I always enjoyed working with the public.”

After a four-year stint on Dadeville City Council, Smith ran for and won the mayor’s seat in 1973. He served 10 years in that capacity. Smith resigned his seat as mayor to become Tallapoosa County Sheriff in 1983.

“I got running for sheriff in my head and resigned as mayor,” Smith said. “I was Sheriff for ten years before I was defeated.”

Smith said some of his proudest moments as sheriff was helping Tallapoosa County fight drugs.

“We solved a lot of cases while I was sheriff,” Smith said. “One of the biggest things was fighting drugs.”

Smith ran for re-election as sheriff in 1995 and was defeated but became mayor shortly after that and served in that capacity until he was defeated in the runoff election with Ingram earlier this year.

“I’m not upset,” Smith said. “People have been good to me over the years. I want to see Dadeville continue to grow and I will help the people in anyway that I can.”

While Smith plans to use his newly acquired time off hunting right now and finding other things to do later he did reflect back on the time he spent serving the city of Dadeville and Tallapoosa County.

“I’ll miss it,” Smith said. “I’ve enjoyed it, if I hadn’t enjoyed it I wouldn’t have done it for so long. I thank the people for allowing me to stay in office for that long.”