ELIZABETHTOWN Eddie Madden’s route to town manager was not the usual script.
He’d worked as a planner in Highlands, a small community near the Georgia and South Carolina border in the southern Appalachian mountains. Then a 10-year stint with his father in real estate.
It was early 2008, about the time America was entering a financial crisis. Sylvia Campbell had just won her first term as mayor and the town’s clerk, Juanita Hester, said among the applications was one she thought worthy of giving a good look.
“He was flying, flew into the airport, we began to talk, and I knew immediately he was the man for us,” Campbell said. “We thought so much alike. I had some high expectations. I don’t think I ever took an idea to Eddie that he didn’t pick it up and run with it. He thinks outside of the box. That’s an attribute.”