Darrin Autry, a local business owner and lifelong Daviess County resident, has announced his candidacy for County Commissioner of the Central District.
He is the co-owner of Autry & Keller Heating and Air with Nathan Keller. Autry said they started the business three years ago and have built it from the ground up.
Autry said as a small business owner, he’s noticed that “it’s hard doing business” in Owensboro. His main objective if elected would be to address that issue.
“One of my main issues is I’d like to see about making Owensboro-Daviess County more work-friendly and business-friendly,” he said. “The other counties around us like Henderson, they’re growing and passing us up. Bowling Green has passed us up. I would like to see why we’re not attracting the big businesses and why they’re going elsewhere.”
Another top priority for Autry is supporting law enforcement, especially with some of the public’s feelings toward police departments over the last year or so.
“I’d like to look out for ways to back our police department,” he said. “I know nowadays that a lot of people are hard on the police. I know there are a few bad ones out there, but not all police are bad. We need to keep our police department going, county and city.”
Autry was born and raised here and attended Daviess County High School. He is a deacon at Lewis Lane Baptist Church. He said in his “younger days,” he was the president of the East Daviess County Little League for about 6 years.
Autry admitted he doesn’t have a political background, but said it’s good to have new faces and differing thoughts.
“In a way I think that is kind of good (to elect new people) because they bring fresh new ideas,” he said. “My main issue here is trying to make Daviess County and Owensboro grow and be work-friendly again, like we used to be. I do think it’s important for news faces to get in there and bring in new ideas.”
Autry said he’ll have to get into position to find out more about what we changes can be made, but he knows he’d like to observe the success of other cities.
“I’d like to actually look at Bowling Green and Henderson and see what they’re doing right and what we’re doing differently. Owensboro is a beautiful town,” Autry said. “I’m very energetic and I’m ready to hit the ground running.”
