InTucker Magazine

Tucker Together and Tucker 2014 raised $30,000 in a short amount of time to conduct a feasibility study. The study would be a major step towards securing a referendum. In December of 2013 Santa joined residents on Main Street and gifted the completed study announcing Tucker’s feasibility to operate as an independent government entity.

At the close of the legislative session in 2014, Tucker’s bill was put on hold. Tucker 2014 rebranded to Tucker 2015 with an eye on the future and continued with community outreach with neighborhood meetings, participation at Main Street festivals like Tucker Day and the weekly Tucker Farmers Market.

After all the campaigning and voting, Tucker swore in the first Mayor and representatives for Districts 1 and 3 on the stage of Tucker High School. Both seats in District 2 were in a run-off to be decided a week later and sworn in at Tucker Recreation Center.

Initially, City Council meetings were held anywhere there was space, and a City Hall was chosen before staff moved in to start business in July of 2016. In preparation for an Open House Celebration in 2016, community volunteers decorated and organized the event.

The County voted in 2017 to levy a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax which enabled Tucker to start major street repaving and sidewalk additions throughout the city. To date over 100 miles have been resurfaced.

The City expanded the longstanding volunteer events on Main Street with the addition of the TKR Summer of Fun in 2018. The Movie on Main and the July 3 Celebration of Independence and Fireworks Spectacular brought thousands to Tucker’s Main Street and continue to grow year after year.

The Councils second elections were in 2019, with the Mayor and Post 1 for each of the three districts, and the second council was sworn-in January of 2018. This first term was shortened to get on the typical municipal cycle of elections.

Twenty-twenty was a year of diffi cult events bringing a global pandemic and national unrest. The City successfully pivoted and was able to support residents and businesses with mask giveaways and utilized Cares Act and ARPA funds to provide small business grants to keep doors open. In response to the decline in sales for local restaurants, the City launched the annual Tucker Restaurant Week.

Groundbreakings are an excellent and fun way to highlight the City’s growth and expansion of business opportunities. Several large corporations call Tucker home and have made major investments in the community.

Thanks to Georgia’s tax credits and Tucker’s ability to span the decades in aesthetics, the City has been the fi lm site of several blockbuster TV shows and movies. From Main Street to our neighborhoods, Tucker is the Hollywood of Georgia.

The Bee Habitat at the Tucker Nature Preserve is a great illustration of the City’s collaboration between residents and volunteer groups like Friends of Tucker Parks. Leveraging funds from the County and the City, the Friends group was able to design and recruit the apiary for educational purposes.

Tucker has received several grants from County Commissioners and Community Development Block Grants throughout the years that have been used to improve park amenities and specific projects like signage and street beautification.

Residents approved the addition of Public Works services in 2023, and the department started work summer of 2023. Since then, the City has closed out all inherited work orders and significantly cut down response time for potholes and other major road maintenance.

As cities mature and settle into governance the time for fun projects arrives. Public art has been on the request list since day one and in 2023, Tucker commissioned its first mural with Catlanta for the Model Mile of the trail network.