Faces of Hall County: Mayor Danny Dunagan

Meet Mayor Danny Dunagan! Danny was born and raised in Hall County and is currently serving a second term as the mayor of Gainesville. He is married to MaryLee and the couple has two children; Mary-Rollins and Trip; and three grandchildren; Mills, Nelle Kate and Bella.
“I was elected to city council in 2006, I’m serving my second term as mayor,” Mr. Dunagan said. “In 2013, I was the mayor but I was the appointed mayor on the rotation. We changed our charter and in 2014 we elected the first mayor of Gainesville, and that was my first term as elected mayor.”
Mr. Dunagan owns Three D Cleaners in Gainesville and has owned the business since 1978.
“I enjoy the business and trying to do good work, a quality job and giving the customer what they pay for,” he said.
He says the most exciting thing happening in Gainesville and Hall County right now is growth.
“…we are really growing. What I want to keep an eye on is that we grow in a positive way and we have to be very careful with that. Growth is great, because if you’re not growing, you’re backing up,” he said.
We want to thank Danny for taking time recently with us to tell us more about his life and love of Hall County

Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: “I worked part time when I was in school at a service station, where Burger King is on Thompson Bridge it was a Gulf service station and I worked there. I worked for Harrison Martin and David Reed (M&R Rentals) and they decided to go into the rental business full time and I bought the service station. When I was 21 years old and started running it Cecil Cochran owned the grocery store, right there where Publix is on Thompson Bridge and he came to me and he was the landlord for the dry cleaners and he said ‘you need to get out of the service station business because all these oil companies are going to run these service stations out of business.'”
“And they did,” Dunagan said. “So, I had a friend of mine go in with me and buy it as absentee owners and got out of the service station business. We bought it in ’78…I enjoy the business and trying to do good work, quality job and giving the customer what they pay for.”

Q: What is your favorite part about serving as mayor?
A: “I love the economic development part of it, I love intertwining with my citizens and trying to help in any way I can. I like to think I contribute and give back what the city has given me over the years.”
Q: What do you think most people don’t know about the mayor’s duties?
A: “Most people don’t know about the time involved and the meetings…even our council members spend a tremendous amount of time talking to people. Also, the classes and seminars we attend are intensive. We go to Atlanta and Savannah for Mayor’s Day and we are in classes all day.”
Q: What do you think is the most exciting thing happening in Hall County right now?
A: “I think the most exciting thing is our growth, we are really growing. What I want to keep an eye on is that we grow in a positive way and we have to be very careful with that. Growth is great, because if you’re not growing, you’re backing up and that’s not good.”

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County, and what do you love there?
A: “As you can well tell, I like to eat and I can’t really come out and say I have a favorite. We are very fortunate in Gainesville to have the quality of restaurants that we have and every one of them has something that I enjoy.”

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met in Hall County and why?
A: “That would be hard to say because I feel like in Gainesville and Hall County, we’ve had and have a wonderful group of individuals that love the city, love the county and work hard to promote it and get it where it is today. We’ve got our Govenor from Gainesville-Hall County, the lieutenant Govenor is from Hall County and I’ve known Casey (Cagle) for a long time from when he had a business here in Gainesville, our Govenor’s Chief of Staff is from Gainesville, we’ve got Mr. Philip Wilheit who is very instrumental with the state and Doug Carter, Abit Massey; I’ve got a lot of favorites and we are fortunate to have the quality that we’ve got.”

Q: What is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
A: “I can’t say I can but it was downtown at the Royal Theatre or The Ritz.”

Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “It would be to get in a nice boat and go down the Intercoastal, I love the water, go down through Florida and maybe the Bahamas; that is something that I would love to do.”

Q: What is your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “My most favorite thing is the people, Gainesville-Hall County is such a giving community, it’s just amazing to me and I’ve had other people that have moved here tell me, how friendly, giving and caring the people of Gainesville-Hall County are.”

Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: “I started in January, so I have four years left. I think we’ll see but as it stands now, I’d probably want to retire. I’ll be 71 years old and I want to spend more time with my wife and grandkids. Right now, I’d see myself as retired, relaxing and playing more golf that I’ve had to give up and maybe traveling some.”

Q: What three words mean “Home” to you?
A: “Family, comfort, security.”

The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.