Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb2016

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Bustos, who served on the Council
from 2000 to 2009 and reclaimed his
seat in November. “I don’t think we’re
in a bad place right now, but we will
be soon if we don’t take action.”
Bustos grew up in Mount
Pleasant and graduated from
Moultrie High School in 1968. He
earned an undergraduate degree
from Columbia College and a
master’s from Central Michigan
University and spent 24 years in the
U.S. Army, reaching the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel. His military
career took him to places as diverse
as New Jersey, Georgia, Kansas and
Korea, but picking a place to retire
was an easy decision for Bustos and
his wife, Kathy, a graduate of Bishop
England High School. They returned
home in 1995.
“We looked around and couldn’t
think of a better place to live than
Mount Pleasant,” he said.
An unsuccessful candidate for the
post of mayor of Mount Pleasant in
2009 and again in 2013, Bustos said
he ran his entire Council campaign
for around $3,000 of his own money.
“I didn’t want to be beholden to
anyone,” he explained. “If you take
money, you will feel obligated.
People expect things when they give
you money.”
He explained that he and his wife
“walked a lot, used social media,
visited folks in their homes and sent
emails. That’s how we campaigned.”
Bustos, who worked as a
stockbroker after leaving the Army,
found his retirement job at the
Mount Pleasant Regional Airport.
He learned to fly at the age of 53 and
enjoyed his time in the air so much
that he earned his instrument rating
and commercial license and now
teaches others to “slip the surly
bonds of Earth.”
Bustos said he was a supporter of
preserving the charm of Shem Creek
even before the recent controversy
over the construction of an office
building and parking garage near
the iconic waterway. When he
chaired the Planning Committee
during his previous term on the
Council, he helped establish the
Shem Creek Overlay District and
spearheaded the town’s purchase of
40 acres of land that is now home to
Shem Creek Park.
“There have been plans to build
condos and a marina on the creek,
which would have squeezed out what
was left of the shrimp boats,” he
remarked.
In Bustos’ mind, the town of
Mount Pleasant would be better off
pushing economic rather than
residential development, in part
because businesses pay taxes and
other fees but put little strain on
services provided by the town.
“We need real economic
development so people can live here
and work here,” he commented.
“Creating 50 or 60 minimum wage
jobs is not economic development.”
The Bustos’ have a daughter,
Kelly, and a son, Brian, and a
grandson, Nathan.
Will Haney
For three years of his life, Will
Haney was a student at East Cooper
School, a now-defunct educational
institution housed in a building that
later became part of Mount Pleasant’s
Town Hall. He’ll be spending a lot of
time on that same campus, but
instead of learning to read, write, add
and subtract, he’ll be making
decisions that affect the future of one
of the fastest-growing municipalities
in the country.
Haney, a writer, newspaper
columnist for the Moultrie News and
other publications and a public
relations and marketing consultant,
was successful in his first-ever
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