Mike Boyd, left, and Brab Young, right, are both running as Republicans for Colquitt County Board of Commissioners District 4 to replace Commissioner Al Whittington, who didn’t seek re-election. The winner June 9 will be unopposed in the November General Election and, barring a write-in campaign, will take office in January.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Brab Young didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to run for county commissioner. It’s been a decade-long process of listening and learning about how Colquitt County runs. 

He unsuccessfully ran for county commissioner in 2016, but as he runs for District 4 again, he feels ready for action.

Young, a retiree, parent and grandparent, is a Colquitt County native whose family has lived in District 4 since the 1940s. Raised here, he graduated from Moultrie Senior High School in 1972 and subsequently went to Georgia Southern College (now Georgia Southern University).

From there, Young was gone for 35 years doing a host of executive level jobs in manufacturing, finance, real estate, contract management and distribution. A call for help brought him back.

“My parents began to decline in health and my sister was having to look after them,” he said. “She owned two businesses and she needed some help.”

So he came back home, taking care of his parents, Brazzle and Lula Mae, in shifts with his sister until their death in 2011.

“After being gone for so long, it was a blessing to spend those last three years with them,” he said. “It was hard, but it was a blessing.”

Young had the opportunity to leave town once again, but decided to stay, finding that this was where his heart was at.

“My family was here, my children were here, they married people from here,” Young said. “I wanted to stay around here cause they were going to have grandkids.”

Young officially retired three years ago and took to becoming a cattle rancher on family land. While he’s also a doting grandfather to the grandkids, he stays connected to his community through various boards.

He’s been on the Moultrie-Colquitt County Joint Commission on Zoning and Planning since 2014, the Career Technology Agricultural Education Advisory Council for the Colquitt County Board of Education and the Moultrie YMCA Board of Directors in 2016 to name a few.

Young said that involvement and continuously going to the county commissioners’ meetings were a part of his listening and learning process — the path to where he’s attempting to get to now.

The other part was building relationships with the community including law enforcement, city council, current commissioners, businesspeople and citizens in general.

“We’re all one county, we’re all one community, but we have different focuses,” he said. “That’s the difference between the city and the county.”

As for the why, he said he wants to keep up the trend of great leadership and streamline the task of giving a helping hand to the county’s many constituents.

“I know what they do and how they handle it, and I’m ready to go,” Young said.

Young said there isn’t just one issue that’s more important than the rest, rather it’s about answering whatever new objectives need handling. Part of that is figuring out how the council will adapt in a post-COVID-19 world as a contact job.

Handling public safety, a population increase from PCOM South Georgia gaining new classes each year, and the housing and service needs that come from it are some other questions too.

“We’re projected to grow by 5,000 people in five to six years,” he said “With 45,000, we’ll probably be at 50,000 in the next five to six years.”

As Young put it, those are all going to be good questions for the city and county to answer going forward. He hopes to be there answering them in the ranks of the county commissioners.

“There are three things I tell folks,” Young said. “I’m prepared, I’ve got a history of public service and I’m dedicated to the growth of this county and business creating jobs. I just want this county to do good. It means a lot to me.”