A Luverne man, Larry Coggins has announced his candidacy for Luverne City Council. The candidate said he hopes to bring the same dedication to District One that he brought to his many years in public service. 

Coggins, who was born and raised in Luverne, resides there with his wife, Janice Coggins, of 50 years and currently works part-time as security for the Luverne courthouse. He retired from his role as a professional fire fighter after serving for 25 years in Greenville. 

Before taking up the career, Coggins was a volunteer with Luverne Fire and Rescue. Additionally, he served in law enforcement in Luverne for 10 years. 

“That experience has taught me the value of leadership, accountability, and listening to the people I serve,” Coggins said in his candidacy announcement on social media. “Now, I want to bring that same commitment to the people of District One.”

One of Coggins’s main goals is to create more opportunities for the youth of Luverne.

In his announcement, Coggins said that he believes in creating opportunities through more community programs and activities that could help local youths to thrive.

“When we grew up here, we didn’t have anything to do as teenagers; back then we didn’t have the ballpark,” Coggins said. “Now we have the ballpark, we have a few things to do, but I want to see more activities for the youth – young people – to do, especially to keep them off the street and give them something else to do besides walk up and down the street.’ 

Additionally, Coggins has a second goal of lowering the costs of renting and housing in Luverne. 

If elected, Coggins said he will be committed to researching and working on practical solutions to improve access to affordable housing and fair rent. 

“I hear people talking about, ‘Well if we could afford to buy a house, we wouldn’t be renting,’ or ‘If we could afford to rent, we wouldn’t have to work two jobs.’ That’s something to look into,” Coggins said. “If you’re interested in something and you dig enough, you can find some information… Somebody’s got to start somewhere, [to] get some information [and] find out what the deal is and if anything can be done.” 

Coggins hopes to work with the citizens of Luverne and District One, and said that his door is always open to them. He also plans to pass out cards with his information and talk to as many people in the district as he can. 

“I will listen, represent your concerns, and work every day to help our city forward,” Coggins said. “Let’s come together and show everyone what The Friendliest City in the south is truly about.”