Bill Conrad
Mayor
City of Newberry, Florida
Education:
Titusville High School 1967
University of Florida BA 1972
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville MBA 1976
Santa Fe College, Building Construction 2002
Biography:
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Mayor Conrad worked as a police officer for Gainesville Police Department, and took classes at UF whenever he could squeeze them in. He met an Emergency Room Nurse named Martha Preston who was from High Springs. They were married in 1972 and they’ve been married ever since. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1972 and joined the Air Force immediately after.
Lieutenant Conrad was sent to flight school to become a navigator. He started flying C-130s, and flew in Southeast Asia, Antarctica, Panama and Europe. In 1978, Captain Conrad was accepted to the 89th Airlift Wing in Washington, DC, where he was a navigator on the VC-137, the presidential aircraft. He traveled with President Reagan, Vice President Bush and many other dignitaries. In 1984 he was back into the real Air Force as a maintenance squadron commander at bases in England and Germany. The squadron he commanded in England was selected as the most outstanding maintenance squadron in Europe in 1986. In 1988 he was sent back to flying duties on the C-141 aircraft at Charleston AFB, SC. There he served as Chief of Special Operations and flew on the lead aircraft during the invasion of Panama. He also deployed during Desert Storm.
In 1993, LtCol Conrad was assigned as a liaison to the United Nations and sent to Somolia. He served as the Airfield Commander at Mogadishu Airport during what was supposed to be a humanitarian mission but turned into a full-scale combat operation. I lost 14 soldiers who were under my command during that mission.
By 1994 LtCol Conrad was back to Charleston AFB as the Inspector General, where he served until his retirement in 2000.
He went back to school at Santa Fe College in 2001 to get a degree in building construction. He got his contractor’s license and started Conrad Construction, Inc. in 2002. The company has built new homes and done remodels in Alachua County and has many satisfied customers.
In 2006 he was elected to the City Commission of Newberry and reelected in 2009. In April of 2011 he was elected Mayor. Conrad was selected by the commission to sit on the Board of Directors of the Florida Municipal Power Association (FMPA), the city’s wholesale power provider. The FMPA has recently selected him to sit on the Board of the American Public Power Association, the national trade association. In this capacity, he travels to Washington DC two or three times a year (at their expense) to discuss public power issues with our national leaders. In the two years he has been on the board of FMPA, they have lowered wholesale electric rates by 14%.
Mayor Conrad has worked closely with the Manager, staff and commissioners to develop Newberry as the sports tourism capital of central Florida. They have partnered with Easton Archery and Nations Baseball to bring two new national sports venues to the City of Newberry. The Easton/Newberry Archery Center was completed on 2009 and the Nations Baseball Facility will be completed in March of 2012. Upon completion, the Newberry Nations Baseball Facility will be the largest baseball complex in the United States.
Elected: 2011
Term Ends: 2015
Telephone: 352-472-9273
Mailing address:
City of Newberry
PO Box 369
Newberry, FL 32669
Commission Appointments:
Liaison:
- Florida Municipal Power Association
- Florida League of Cities
- Florida League of Mayors
- MTPO
- County wide Visioning Committee
Co-Liaison:
- Weed and Seed Committee
