Running for Office: Brusly Town Council

BRUSLY — Don Neisler said he is hoping the citizens of Brusly will give him the “special honor” to serve on the Town Council for the next four years. For the past 39 years, the 68-year-old retiree and his wife, Mary, have lived in Brusly, where the couple raised two children and where Neisler has served within various sectors of public service.

“I have been a concerned and involved citizen with our local government since 1974 by attending many Planning Commission and council meetings, prior to becoming a council member, and I want to insure we continue a planned orderly growth,” he said in a prepared statement.

Neisler, an independent, was appointed on the Town Council in January to fill the unexpired term of Chris “Fish” Kershaw, who was elected to the West Baton Rouge Parish Council.

Neisler is vying for a seat on the five-member Town Council against fellow independents Shane Andre and Joanne Bourgeois, Republicans James L. Hebert and Scot M. Rhodes and Democrats Margaret S. Canella, Elton Higginbotham, Terry J. Richard Jr. and Valorie R. Spriggs.

The candidates run at large in the Nov. 6 election.

Neisler is a military veteran who served four years in the Navy, from 1968 to 1972, before he was honorably discharged. He received a bachelor of architecture degree from LSU in 1973.

In 1974, he joined the staff of the Capital Region Planning Commission, where he worked directly with elected officials throughout 11 parishes and 47 municipalities in southeast Louisiana — including Brusly’s past four mayors, he said.

From 1988 until 2009, he served as the agency’s executive director before he retired.

Neisler actively served on the Brusly Centennial Committee and said he played a major role in providing technical assistance to the town in developing land use plans, street plans and zoning and subdivision ordinances and amendments.

“I have the time, ambition and dedication to continue working for you to keep Brusly the wonderful town we call home,” he said.