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Haywood Ware seeking mayoral spot on GOP ticket
Haywood Ware, 65, of 208 S. Arlington St., has announced his candidacy for mayor of Greencastle on the Republican ticket in the May 5 primary.
"Five years ago I moved from Greenville, S.C., here to Greencastle," Ware said, "and I opened The Gallery on The Square next door to Old National Bank and sold furniture, jewelry and art primitives.
"I fell in love with Greencastle 20 years ago," he continued, "when I would bring my mother up to my sister's house in Cloverdale every summer and I would come back and get my mother in the fall.
"I always wanted to live on the square. I tried to rent an apartment but nothing was available, so I rented the building at 11 N. Indiana St. and lived in the 3,000-square-foot basement and had my shop on the first floor. Then I meet my sweetheart, Mary Harmon, fell in love, and we have been together for four years."
Ware started managing the Sears store in Putnam Plaza about a year ago.
Looking around Greencastle for improvements, Ware offered, "I think we should sell the 'white elephant' 50,000-square-foot building east of town, a 'build-it-and-they-will-come' waste of money
since 2007."
He also wants to see the city bring its infrastructure up to date and "take care of our citizen needs" while making sure "water rates are equal for everyone. Large users are paying less for water than it costs to produce."
"I see money being wasted downtown," Ware added. "The city bid out Vine Street (a Stellar Grant streetscape project) -- one of the better streets in town -- to make it match Indiana Street and is removing parking spots. We do need a self-sustaining community center in a central location, where children can walk to it safely, not 3.5 miles from downtown Greencastle at the sports park east of town."
With his experience as the mayor of Pflugerville, Texas, for three terms, Ware believes he can "help Greencastle plan for the future."
"Pflugerville was the fastest-growing city in Texas," he added. "It was 4,400 (population) when I was elected, and 23,000 three terms later, all in six years.
"I helped bring Samsung's only plant to the area, a $4 billion complex with 2,000 jobs averaging $25 an hour," he added. "I also helped (baseball Hall of Famer) Nolan Ryan raise $8 million to build his Dell Diamond with Mayor Charlie Culpepper of Round Rock."
In doing so, Ware won the Cities and Towns National Sam Walton Leadership Award in 1995 for cities under 50,000.
Ware has more than 40 years of business and sales experience in both the public and private sectors, "dealing with people on all levels.
The Republican candidate lists his key strengths as business development, communications, client relationship cultivation and marketing/sales.
As a marketing consultant for Metcalf & Eddy, the world's largest privately owned environmental engineering company in the world at $1 billion plus in work yearly, he sold to water and wastewater treatment plants in the Southwest.
Ware also owned a Dixie Chopper dealership, Dixie Chopper of Texas (2000-2003), and helped develop the company's propane-powered lawn mower.
He is a member of the Greencastle American Legion Post and a life member of the Indiana Heritage Arts Council.
While mayor of Pflugerville, Ware was a member of Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors, the Texas Municipal League Board of Directors (all Texas cities), the Texas Municipal League Legislative Policy Committee on Utilities/Environment and the State of Texas Attorney General's Advisory Committee.