Rash seeks county office

The former finance director for the city of Cairo is running for election to the Grady County Commission as a Republican. Cecil M. Rash qualified Friday and will challenge Democrat Thomas L. (T.D.) David for the commission’s District Five seat being vacated by longtime Commissioner Bobby Burns, who is retiring.
Rash, 67, is a Grady County native who has extensive experience in government finance and is now working independently as an accountant. “I spoke with some people about running (for office). I know quite a bit about government and finance, and so I had enough time to do it and I wanted to do it,” Mr. Rash says. “My main concern is to try to oversee things like they should be done and give the best services that we possibly can to the residents and keep their taxes as low as possible.”
The certified public accountant left his full-time position as finance director for the city of Cairo in December 2008 after working nearly 11 years in that position. Prior to that, he worked part time as an accountant for Ken Young Company and other individuals and businesses locally. In the mid-1990s, he worked for nearly a year for the state of Florida, part of that time in payroll at the state capital and the rest of that time for Florida’s Attorney General’s office.
Rash, a 1962 graduate of Cairo High School, is married to his college sweetheart, Sue, whom he met while attending Valdosta State College. Rash had attended Middle Georgia College for two years and then returned home to Cairo before going to Valdosta, where he earned a degree in accounting in 1970.
The couple remained in Valdosta for nearly two years before moving to Miami, Fla., to be near Sue Rash’s family. While in south Florida, Cecil Rash worked as a finance director for Bay Harbor Islands, at first full time and then part time. In all, he worked 19 years in that position. While working part time for the town, he also worked as a CPA for private clients.
After 22 years in south Florida, the Rash family moved to Cairo to live near Cecil’s mother, Willie Rash, who passed away in 2006.
Cecil and his wife have three children, 37-year-old twins Kelley and Jason and 25-year-old Katrina; and four grandchildren, Taylor, Emily, Jack and Belle, all children of Kelley and her husband, David Mitchell. The Mitchells live in Rock Hill, S.C. Jason and his wife, Jennifer, live in Birmingham, Ala. Katrina also lives in Birmingham.
Sue and Cecil Rash reside at 596 Sixth Ave. Southeast in Cairo.