About My Campaign
My Campaign Is About
- Balancing new growth and opportunities that make sense for Green Cove Springs while honoring and preserving the city's rich small-town charm and history.
- Providing fiscally conservative leadership that works to reduce citizens’ tax burdens and makes local government processes less burdensome and more business-friendly.
- Prioritizing improving the city's infrastructure while planning and preparing for growth.
- Promoting conservation of the city's resources, such as water, electricity.
- Protecting and promoting the city's parks and natural resources.
- Advocating strongly for the city's law enforcement and first responders.
- Remaining accountable and accessible to the citizens of GCS.
- Improving management of traffic in GCS and address citizens’ concerns and issues.
- Supporting community connectivity and walkability, specifically on safety issues like those present at the Walnut Street and U.S. 17 intersection.
- Researching new opportunities that will help more residents get transportation to and from the city’s center business district.
- Encouraging redevelopment opportunities that address the city’s vacancies and underutilized developments.
Why I'm Running for Green Cove City Council
- I am Dave Daigle, candidate for Green Cove Springs City Council, Seat #5. The election is April 8th.
- Green Cove Springs is my hometown, my family was a military family, moving every two or three years before we settled in Green Cove when I was about nine. Prior to settling in Green Cove Springs we lived in Butzbach, Germany; Fort Knox, KY; Fort Meade, MD; and Fort Stewart GA. My dad moved us into Magnolia Springs Apartments – what’s now St. Johns Landing – in the early 1970s while he deployed for his second tour in Vietnam.
- Green Cove became home upon his return from Vietnam and retirement from the Army. We opened the Dairy Queen that was on Orange Avenue across from the Courthouse and bought a home on St. Johns Avenue. Later my parents opened a second restaurant, The Florida House, across from what used to be Brown & Cartwright Ace Hardware on Orange Avenue. After the restaurants closed, dad delivered Times-Union newspapers for most of the area, and me and two younger brothers left Green Cove and joined the military – one each in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
- I am the oldest of six, all Clay High graduates, and most of us stayed close to GCS and our family home on St. Johns Avenue. I returned to GCS in 2023 to support my family and help care for my mother who passed last year. I’m now retired from the Army and from my service with the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. My wife, son, and I now live in the family home on St. Johns Avenue that we are renovating. We have reengaged with the community, the church I attended growing up, and we regularly attend city council meetings.
- Green Cove is home -- my family's home -- and I would like to work and support this community. I’m not a politician, and I have never run for office. But I realize our town is at an important point in its history, and I plan to spend the rest of my life here. I’d like to volunteer my service and help guide decisions about my community’s future.
- I plan to work hard and listen to all citizens during my campaign for election on April 8th. My goal is to work for, and with, the community to help grow Green Cove Springs in a way that maintains the historic nature of the city and maintains its small-town, family-friendly culture.
- I look forward to meeting and chatting with you and your neighbors, and learning more about how I can best serve my community and how I can better understand the issues that are important to you.