Jerry Goff represents District 2 in east central Suwannee County. His district primarily covers members living south of County Road 252, north of County Road 240, east of 129th Road and west of the Columbia County line. Mr. Goff lives in McAlpin and has served on the board for 21 years.
Q: What do you like most about living in Suwannee Valley?
The country. I’ve been in agriculture all my life, and I love the springs, the rivers, the neighbors. It’s just a good place to be.
Q: What line of work are you in?
I farm anything you can make money on, but right now we’re down to chickens, peanuts and sod. I’ve also grown corn and tobacco — the whole nine yards.
Q: What do you like to do outside of work?
I go to church and work, and that’s pretty much it. We’ve got a lot of children and grandchildren, so they keep me busy.
Q: What made you want to serve on the board?
When Dwight Stansel got elected to the House of Representatives, people asked me to fill out his term. After that, they wanted me to stay on because I’m down to earth and I can handle the business end of the job.
Q: What are you passionate about as a trustee?
Reliability and safety. We’ve come a long way in both. We want to provide affordable service, but you can’t give up reliability. That’s one thing I always stress. Increasing reliability has a cost, but it’s worth it.
Q: What do you enjoy most about serving on the board?
We’ve got a good board, good employees and a good manager. All our out-door guys are as good as they come. Most of our members probably don’t know the work that goes into recovering from a big storm like a hurricane, but you can just count on them. I admire them; I really do.
Q: What’s the most important impact SVEC has on its community?
I really like the Operation Round Up program we just started. We can be a lot of help in a lot of schools without putting a big burden on anybody.