Staff Writer

July 24, 2000 10 PM

George Balmer has qualified to run for mayor of Troy.

The former Florida resident "looked for a land that still had the values of the Lord Jesus our Savior" and his search led him to this area.

He moved to Pine Level, just north of Troy, bought a farm on which to raise his children.

It was Troy’s "schools of the best quality in the land" that brought him here. Those schools educated his children, five of the seven who went to four different colleges and graduated ­ two in Troy, one a registered nurse and one a special education teacher who graduated summa cum laude, one who was a straight-A, civil engineering student at Auburn and another who earned a degree in civil engineering and graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a 3.75 grade point average and another who became an associate nurse with a 4.0 GPA in Vermont.

"The intelligence of these children and the strong influence of my wife, Margaret, took hold of the opportunity our nation offers to all who really try," Balmer said.

At the age of 75, Balmer has one child going to business school and studying accounting.

"This leaves my beloved David who chose to follow in my footsteps, a body shop proprietor in the Auburn area," Balmer said.

He said if the people of Troy elect him as their mayor, he will "crack down on drugs, reduce sales tax and return the utilities to the old rate of 1999."

Municipal elections will be held Aug. 22.