On many days, Jean Calderwood would stroll into City Hall at 6:45 a.m., answer a few e-mails and then head to her full-time job at the State of Florida Department of Management Services. On occasion, she’d go back to City Hall for lunch, then back to work and then back to City Hall once again for a public workshop or commission meeting.
“There were days I would leave my house at 6:30 a.m. and not get home until 11 p.m.,” Calderwood said.
This kind of break-neck pace has been the status quo for Calderwood for the past 14 years. But for at least the near future, she will be taking a break from that sometimes hectic sch.
edule to decompress and evaluate her future plans.
“I have not made any solid plans in terms of what my future focus is going to be, other than attend my grandson’s ballgames,” Calderwood said.
Going to ballgames is how Calderwood first found her way into politics. Her three sons played T-ball, football and basketball, and she became a volunteer and advocate for the recreation program. She valued the program and the impact it could have on her sons.
“The impetus was my struggle to make sure that my sons received a balanced and constructive childhood to help them reach a constructive, balanced adulthood.”
Calderwood volunteered many hours with the program and helped build it to what it is today.
Her involvement in recreation led to her involvement in other areas of the community, too.
She became an advocate for drug prevention in neighborhoods, worked on the planning and zoning board, participated in the chamber of commerce and eventually served as president of the chamber for two years.
About 10 years ago, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Calderwood to serve on the commission after Commissioner Gerald Criswell became ill and resigned. Two months after her appointment, she ran for re-election and won that seat in April. She served out the 14-month term and then lost her re-election attempt to Tamera Robbins in the following year.
Calderwood said her support of Dollar General and the growth of business in Alachua probably cost her the election, but she stood by that decision.
In the three years after her defeat, Calderwood continued to go to commission meetings and speak her mind.
“No matter which chair I was sitting in, I was going to be involved as a citizen,” Calderwood said.
Calderwood won her next election and was re-elected three years later. But now, as many view her as an entrenched, essential member of the commission, she is stepping down. And it was not an easy decision.
“It’s sort of like a mother turning loose of the young,” she said.
She said she was willing to step down because she accomplished her original goals, and she saw quality candidates ready to take her place.
She said she thinks Ben Boukari will be an excellent commissioner and so will the winner of the runoff election between Robert Wilford and Duane Helle.
Calderwood said she also is pleased with the city manager. She said she thinks Traci Cain is the right city manager to face the current challenges of the city.
Even though Calderwood is happy with the direction of the city, she said she wouldn’t rule out running for the commission again, if the need arose.
“There are still people in the city of Alachua that would like to see growth stopped,” Calderwood said. “You can’t stop growth. The best thing you can do is make sure that it stays focused in a constructive way and you maintain the balance of growth with the quality of life and your community.”
If there are destructive forces that come forward to say, ‘We want to stop growth in the city of Alachua,’ yes, I would step forward again.”