By Martin Couch
Bryant businessman Steve Gladden believes in serving his community.
He followed his heart and decided to run for the Bryant City Council and the people in his Ward voted him in by more than 70 percent.[more]
“Sometimes I need to have my head examined,” Gladden joked.
Seriously, though, after the tornado ripped through Hurricane Creek some four years ago, Gladden found himself called to service for his community.
“I am an alderman because I’m a person who has always served in my community and because my heart led to do that,” he said.
As a businessman in Bryant for a few years before, a few people in the city came to him and asked if he’d run for City Council because they believed that business-minded people were needed.
“I thought about it, especially after the situation happened at Hurricane Creek,” Gladden said. “That was a bad thing for Bryant. I thought, well maybe we do need business-minded people in the Council, so I ran. I ran against a very nice man and I was very fortunate not to see the ugly side of politics there.”
Gladden believes that he made the right decision.
“All in all, I think those people that do this, do it because their heart leads them to it and they think they will make a difference,” he said. “That’s what we all strive for is to make a difference in our community and we hope we can set something aside that will be good for all of us.”
When asked if he was running again for his Council position in the fall, Gladden emphatically stated, “Yes I am.”
