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Camp retires as mayor, returns to Cotton District |
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Thursday, 02 July 2009 |
 Kelly Daniels/SDN Former Mayor Dan Camp looks forward to retiring “to quiet history in the garden” at his Cotton District home. By KELLY DANIELS
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Former Mayor Dan Camp does not mince words about his future plans now that he’s left City Hall.
“I’m going to retire to a quiet history in the garden,” Camp said on his first morning retired from his position as mayor.
Standing in the courtyard of his Holtsinger Street home, he listened to a wren sound her mating call, watched a blackbird fly over his running fountain and into a tropical shrub, held his arms out and said, “Would you leave all this?”
Happy to re-ignite the intensity with which he developed his mini-paradise prior to his first mayoral bid, Camp has already settled into his favorite place in Starkville, the Cotton District. And his favorite place in the district is a bamboo sofa on his porch, where he sat Wednesday relaxing.
“This is a beautiful view,” he said, pointing to one of his designs, a building tall and wide, above which his crepe myrtles blooming pink.
Camp’s five-story Charlestonian house sits right in the heart of the district he developed over 40 years ago.
“I built my house in the middle of a slum,” he said, adding that pistol battles took place next door. “People thought I was crazy.”
Lot by small lot, he created a community of around 90 buildings inspired by classic Greco-Roman and European architecture.
“My mother always said never partner and never sell anything. Well, I followed those two instructions,” he said, referencing his 11 cars.
Born a builder, Camp built tree -houses at ages 5 and 6. The next year he was handling a 16-ounce hammer.
“My mom ran my dad off when I was 5, so I had to teach myself some things,” he said.
At 13, he designed and built a Cabin Cruiser sailboat.
That same year, a time during which he says Mississippians were too poor to travel, he also witnessed former president Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration.
Motivated by paid vacation time, Camp diverted his career focus from building to teaching during his 20s.
“But now, my livelihood is my hobby, so this is a vacation all the time,” he said.
No regrets
While he has no regrets of his vetoes, proposals or agendas during his four years helming Starkville’s city government, Camp still has a gripe or two about his administration’s handling of the municipal complex.
“I think when we lost that bond election three years ago, that took a lot of the air out of my mayorship,” he said.
A citizen committee formed to give recommendations to Camp and the Board of Aldermen on the issue was not established until after the bond vote failed, he remembered.
“It was my idea all along for it to be in this retired area downtown,” he said, noting that the architectural plans for the entire scope of the complex required purchase of all properties on the site along Highway 182.
“There’s no reason for the Police Department not to go up instead of going all over the place. Maybe we need a new architect, one who will listen to what the people of Starkville want,” Camp said.
Camp also has no regrets about his board’s perceived disagreements despite multiple 4-3 split votes. In fact, he still calls them agreements.
“The last state to ratify the constitution was Delaware, am I right?” he said, explaining how two-thirds of the colonies agreed. “If you got a 100 percent, you got a dictator.”
Because everyone has a different opinion, everyone will not get along, even when a compromise is made, he added.
“We had a lot of good things happen with P.C. and Sumner and Janette and Richard, and sometimes with Roy and sometimes with Matt and sometimes with Jim Mills,” he said. “But most of the time we had a general consensus.”
Camp stopped and took note of his blunt way of saying things, acknowledging negative reactions from the public.
“I feel like I’m racing for time all the time, so I just kind of take the shorter root that I can to make the point,” Camp explained.
Despite his bluntness, he added, the people of Starkville can point to new road construction around town to see that his ideas led to getting things done.
“We put in place the first road bond issue ever,” he said, emphasizing the last word. “And I hope they like what they see, because they could have had a taste of three times more than this.”
Camp was referring to a $12 million road bond he put on the table, which drew opposition from petitioners and was later voted down
“We had most of the roads that needed repaving paved without a tax increase,” he said.
What’s ahead
Not without praise, Camp believes the city of Starkville has improved exponentially.
“I think Starkville has begun to feel good about itself,” he said. “The outside population even in the state of Mississippi has no idea what is going on here.”
Starkville now has a mayor and three aldermen under the age of 30, a fun fact Camp says no other city in Mississippi can claim.
“This whole place is about young people having the opportunity to do something,” he said. “And young people have good ideas.”
At 68, Camp says he doesn’t think about his own age.
“I’m only reminded when I realize I can’t get around as good,” he said.
“They call that old age... I guess I may look old, but I don’t think old.”
Holding on to his mental alertness, Camps tries to stay active and creative.
The first time he ran for mayor, Camp said simply that it was the time of his life where he could use his ideas to benefit the entire community.
“I felt like I could do some good things for the city,” Camp said. “And I did do some good things for the city.”
Camp does, however, want to say good-bye to governmental involvement.
“My political endeavor at this point has come to a conclusion,” he said
Camp’s sons, Robert and Bonn, both are ahead of his starting age with their own real estate visions.
Both of them have designed, bought, developed and sold property.
“Of course if I die, they could sell all this, but I wouldn’t be around to worry about it. Everybody knows this came from me,” he said. “All I’ve ever done for 40 years is build statues to myself.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 03 July 2009 )
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