Editor’s note: The profiles below are for candidates in the contested Republican primary for the Bryan County Commission Chairman race, incumbent Carter Infinger and challenger Buck Holly. The candidates offer information about themselves and answer questions from the Bryan County News. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Carter Infinger
On his background:
“I’ve been married for 34 years, have two adult children (24 and 26 years). I’m a member of First Baptist Church, Richmond Hill. I have been in the community for over 27 years. I work for Urovant Sciences, in the urology space.”
Why are you running?:
“I’m running for re-election because we got a lot of big projects going on right now, and we want to see those through. We’re in the middle of the Hyundai [plant], we’re in the middle of a lot of projects in the South End [of Bryan County], in the middle of getting Hendrix Park redone. You gotta have the experience and the background knowledge, the institutional knowledge, to finish these projects and see them through.”
What sets you apart as a candidate?:
“My experience. I’ve been doing this for a while. This might be my third and last term as Chairman. I’ve been doing it for a while and I think experience right now is crucial for our county.”
How would you describe your leadership style?:
“I think my leadership style is, we hire the best people and I let them do their job. We try to trust folks to do the job and oversee it and if something happens then that’s when you can step in.”
What do you feel are the biggest issues facing Bryan County today and what will you do to help solve them?:
"The biggest issue right now facing Bryan County is growth. We need to plan for that growth and we need to really grow it at a steady pace and not just [have] the wild, wild west of building [homes]. I think that we need to have a plan and we do have a plan in place to address this growth. We got plans in place to address infrastructure needs, we’re working on that right now. These plans haven’t come about in the last year, we’ve been working on them for years and years.
"I think some of the most pressing things right now are infrastructure projects in the north end of the county. We’re working with GDOT {Georgia Department of Transportation} right now. They’re moving as quickly as they can to get some of these projects done, which have been in place for a few years now–-even before Hyundai got here. We were beginning when the state bought land, we were beginning to think about transportation needs in the north end of the county."
Buck Holly
On his background:
“I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and eventually moved to Minnesota, where I spent middle school and high school there. Then I joined the Marine Corps, where I spent nine years active duty in the Marine Corp as an intelligence analyst. Then I worked as a contractor for the next 13 years. I’m a father of three: I have a 27-year-old daughter and a 25-year-old son who work for me, and a 12-year-old daughter. I moved to Richmond Hill in 2017 with a company called CNH. When we moved here, there was me and two other employees. And then, in the following six, seven years, we grew from three people to over 40 [employees] today. In 2024, we were awarded the Richmond Hill-Bryan County Chamber of Commerce’s “Large Business of the Year” award.”
Why are you running?:
“Over the course of the last seven years, I’ve been able to see what impact a business owner can have on the livelihoods of people and their families. If you pay them well, you treat them well, you give them great job satisfaction. That has really opened my eyes to what is possible. If the right person is in a position of leadership, you can positively impact the quality of life of many, many people and their families. I never really aspired to get into politics because I thought it was a dirty, thankless job. But as I continued to mature and grow and see the impact I could make, it was obvious to me that if I could do that, for that amount of people [my employees], then maybe I could have that same positive impact on many more people.”
What sets you apart as a candidate?:
“What sets me apart from other leaders is that I practice a very proactive approach to leading and being a business leader. One of the pillars of my campaign is that people in positions of leadership would be much better leaders if they were always leaning forward and serving in a productive manner, versus [just] being reactionary.”
How would you describe your leadership style?:
“My leadership style is very hands-on. I like to be in the trenches with my staff. I pride myself in walking through the factory every single day, saying “Hi” and shaking hands and being there, just boots on the ground, hearing and feeling what the feelings are within the company, from the top [position] to the bottom.”
What do you feel are the biggest issues facing Bryan County today and what will you do to help solve them?:
“We have issues in attainable housing, a shortage of attainable housing, [and] a shortage in manpower to fulfill the demand of the jobs that are about to be here, right on our doorstep. The shortage of infrastructure and then the competing interests between those that are pro-growth and those that are anti-growth. I’m not going to say that there is a distinct divide but there is a perception that there is a divide between the north end and the south end [of Bryan County].
“So how do we plan on fixing that? It really boils down to a saying that my old boss used to preach to me…”communicate early and communicate often.” These problems don’t get solved singularly by one person or one small group. They all get solved collaboratively in working groups and committees. When you bring all the stakeholders together and you have open lines of communication and people are allowed to negotiate in good faith based on current data.
“So, I’d really like to collaborate with real estate agents and builders and community leaders and find out where there is an option to build more attainable houses and that will [also] satisfy the needs of the community. We solve that [housing issues] by collaborating between the county and the city, and builders and developers to determine what the true [housing] needs are. The houses that you see going up today are commonly two-story houses. And along with those larger square footages come larger price tags. And beginning homebuyers don’t need a 3,000 sq. ft house, nor can they afford the price tag that comes with it.”
