admin
Tom Handrick is no stranger to service.
After spending most of his life as a Lutheran minister, Handrick is setting his sights on a new challenge — city politics.
Handrick, 71, formally announced his candidacy for mayor of the City of Perryville on Wednesday, saying he wants to show how much the community means to him by serving it.
“Perryville has been very good to us,” Handrick said. “We’ve watched it develop. We’ve watched it grow. It’s a tightways easy for outsiders to integrate, but we’ve been accepted. And what I want to do is, in the context of serving, give back to the community, show my thanks and gratitude for what we’ve received from it over 14 years.”
A native of Houston, Texas, Handrick and his wife, Sally, moved to Perryville in 2005, when Handrick accepted a position at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School, where he served as administrative pastor for nearly 12 years before retiring from full-time pastoral ministry in 2017.
An active member of the Perryville Rotary Club, where he has served as treasurer for the past seven years, Handrick is still involved in the church, serving as a part-time pastor for two small Lutheran parishes in Evansville, Ill.
His faith, he says, will guide his campaign and if elected, he said he has three good templates to follow in former mayors Robert J. Miget and Debbie Gahan and current Mayor Ken Baer.
“All three of them have done good things to move us forward into the future,” Handrick said. “And we’re going to keep that up. We’re going to keep moving into the future, build on the past by identifying the good things that have occurred during those three administrations and celebrate the present, the good stuff that’s going on.”
Handrick said he met with Baer before making his decision to throw his hat in the ring.
“I met with Mayor Baer simply to give him the courtesy of letting him know that, at that time, I was exploring running for mayor and I didn’t want him to hear it from someone else or for it to be a surprise,” Handrick said. “I did tell him that if he did run again, ‘I’ll probably be your best campaigner because I will be highlighting the positive things of his administration, Debbie Gahan’s and Bob Miget’s.’”
It’s unclear at this point if Handrick, who filed as an independent, will face an opponent in the general municipal election scheduled for April 7.
Baer, who has served as mayor since 2014, told the Republic-Monitor on Wednesday that he had not yet made up his mind about seeking another term.
The last day to file for the municipal election is Jan. 21.
