ATHENS – Danny Whitfield, the owner of Market and Monroe in downtown Athens, has announced his candidacy for mayor. The Athens native and his wife bought and restored the space as an event venue in 2021 after Whitfield retired from Sherwin-Williams Company.
“I love the town. It raised me,” said Whitfield. “I lost my father when I was seven years old and just a lot of good people influenced me from business leaders in town to teachers to coaches and I just want to give back.”
Whitfield has served on the Athens-Limestone County Board of Directors, was president of the Athens Jaycees and the Athens Christmas Parade chairman.
The former Sherwin-Williams global accounts manager said he has the experience to manage a city of more than 30,000 residents.
“I’ve had a 35-year business career with the Sherwin-Williams company and, at the end, I was managing some of our largest accounts worldwide on five different continents.” he said. “I managed hundreds of millions of dollars and put business plans together annually for 35 years.”
Whitfield also served as city councilman from 2000-04.
“I took a global sales and management marketing position and was traveling all over the world for the last 10 years,” he said. “So I’ve kind of been out of the picture, but I retired and kind of taken 5 the last five years off, but I’m ready to go back to work.”
Managing smart growth in Athens is a number one priority according to Whitfield. Athens is the county seat of Limestone County, the fastest growing county in Alabama.
“You can’t get the genie back in the bottle,” said Whitfield. “It’s coming. So the biggest thing and probably our biggest challenge is traffic and relieving congestion.”
Smart growth is also a quality of life issue, he said.
“We can’t just grow without control and we need to grow smart,” he said. “And it’s gonna take somebody with some special leadership skills to be able to keep our town with the quality of life at what we expect.
“And you know, we’ve got to protect our downtown.”
Whitfield said it’s also important to have a safe community.
“You have to keep the police and fire and first responders properly funded and staffed. The safety of the citizens is at the forefront of having a good community,” he said.
Mayor Ronnie Marks has held the position since 2010. After winning the 2020 race, Marks told The News Courier that was his last election.
The Athens municipal election is set for Aug. 26.
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