<< Back 11/27/02 Shepherd ready to take seat on board By Scott McLeod The stories are already piling up for Jay Dee Shepherd, one of Macon County newest commissioners. “A lady called the other night. She wanted me to get her road paved. I just laughed and told her I wasn’t the governor, I’m just a county commissioner,” said a smiling Shepherd. Leave it to the self-effacing Shepherd to call himself “just a commissioner.” The 71-year-old retired excavation company owner is the first black commissioner in Macon County and the only one west of Buncombe, elected in a county and a region where minority populations hover around 1 percent. “It’s a great feeling,” said Shepherd of his recent win. “I know there are going to be a lot of headaches and problems, but the people of Macon County have come a long way.” Shepherd knows about going a long way. His family was raised in Macon County, but his two sisters and brother left for the Chicago metropolitan area when they were young so they could find work. Shepherd spent 20 years back and forth between that urban center and Macon County when he was young, trying to find economic opportunity and avoid the racial tensions that were more pronounced in the South. The first week of December, Shepherd expects some of those family members to travel back to Macon to see his swearing in ceremony. The irony of his relatives having to come back to the South to witness significant progress in race relations isn’t lost on Shepherd. “They were sort of surprised when I won. I don’t think they thought it could happen here,” said Shepherd. Shepherd’s victory came in a bruising election that saw a slate of Republican candidates attack the county administration and a proposed land-use plan. The tone of the election was negative, and some are now saying it backfired on the Republicans by splitting the party and sending a whole slate of Democrats into office. “I don’t really know what their problems were, but I know they definitely had problems,” said Shepherd. “I did not want to get involved in it. I believe if a man can’t run on his own merits, then just stay out of politics. I am glad that campaign is over with.” Shepherd’s ascendancy to one of five seats on the Macon County board started innocently more than 20 years ago. During the 1970s, his name started appearing on county ballots as a write-in candidate. A good friend began tallying the votes, and each year Shepherd’s total grew just a little. “Finally my friend came to me and said it was time I got involved and really tried to run. He convinced me it was the right thing to do,” said Shepherd. His stature in the greater Macon County community is the result of three decades of hard work. The great grandson of Macon County slaves, Shepherd dropped out of school in the seventh-grade when his father became ill. He never went back. After several sojourns up North, Shepherd settled in Macon and started his own business. He worked for people all over the county, giving an honest day’s work for his pay. In the years before the current house-building boom in Macon, he would often have to go to Atlanta in the winter to find work. “I think my win sends out a message that it is not a man’s education or color, but his heart, where he stands,” said Shepherd. Now that he’s in office, he hopes that the current board can make progress on several fronts. “The way I see it, the county and the city are going to have to get together and work out some problems with sewer and water. The county can’t do anything as far as growth until these problems are addressed,” he said. As for land-use planning, he would like to see the county become a kind of overseer for community-specific planning efforts. He does not think the county should impose a plan that will tell property owners in each community what they can and can’t do. “The people in the communities need to appoint someone to work on this 2025 plan, and then the county will not have to be directly involved,” he said. Since it became clear that he was a serious candidate, Shepherd says he’s had a steady stream of constituents coming to see him and expressing their views on the different issues facing the county. “I welcome that. I want people to call me, to come by and say how they feel about issues. It’s the only way to make good decisions,” he said. Shepherd also has strong feelings about economic development, and especially wants the county to do its best to lure high-paying, technical jobs to the region. His siblings had to leave to find work, and his own children — two of his own and two he and his wife helped raise for family members — have all moved across the country looking for good jobs. “I might be in a position now where I can do a little something about that,” he says, a wide smile spreading across his face. “Yeah, maybe I can.”