There are plenty of Rowan County locals with big years ahead of them, but the Salisbury Post has chosen 10 of the many to focus on in its “People to Watch 2025” series.

Today’s feature focuses on Carlton Jackson Jr., a Salisbury native who was appointed to the Salisbury City Council last year to fill a vacancy. Jackson was appointed to the council in November, filling the seat vacated by Anthony Smith, who resigned to return to his native Birmingham, Alabama.

Jackson grew up in Salisbury and graduated from Salisbury High School before getting his associate’s degree in industrial management and engineering technology. He would then go on to graduate from the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School as a transportation and logistics officer, serving in the Army for three years and in the National Guard for 12 years.

After active duty, Jackson returned to Salisbury, where he worked in multiple careers before settling into a job with Duke Energy, where he is still employed.

Since returning to Salisbury, Jackson has been involved in the Rowan County community many ways, including being involved with the Rowan Helping Ministries board of directors, serving on the board at Waterworks and serving as the chairman of the Rowan County Board of Social Services. He has also worked with the School to Work program and previously served on the city’s Community Appearance Commission and its Neighborhood Leaders Alliance.

“It’s easy to want things to change, or complain about things not changing, but the best way to influence the possibility of change is through involvement and being willing to work yourself in whatever capacity is needed for the betterment of community and city,” said Jackson.

Jackson said that his commitment to his community, particularly his focus on public safety and protecting and providing outlets for the community’s youth, came partly from an incident in the 1990s, when a murder occurred right in front of his West End home. Mark Wilhelm, who would later become chief of the Salisbury Police Department, came to Jackson’s home and had a conversation with him about the incident and the community.

“After the murder, (Wilhelm) came to my house and sat and spoke with me fairly extensively about the community and what they would like to do to curb the activity around, at that time it was crack (cocaine). It was obvious that he really did care, and it made me want to do what I could as a citizen. The police can’t be everywhere and do anything, so our eyes as citizens particularly are important,” said Jackson.

He added that a lot of people are reluctant to be involved with their local government, especially police, but that they need to realize that we’re all members of the community and we all need the police and other government officials to do their job, and so should help them when we can.

In regards to his future priorities, Jackson pointed to a community survey held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Resource Fair on Sat., Jan. 18 as indicative of where he wants to focus during the upcoming year. The three main responses that he saw were concerns about the city’s roads, the homeless population, opportunities for youth and public safety within the community. He said that those priorities generally lined up with what he thought was important, but that it was good to get the community’s input and act based on that.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one record/album to listen to, what would it be and why? Earth, Wind & Fire, “Spirit” was the name of the album. There were a number of songs with a strong message, I thought. The music was great and the message was great.

If they made a movie about your life, who should the producers cast to play you? Jeffery Wright.

What is your motto/mantra/favorite saying? To whom much is given, much is required. Understanding that it is better to give than it is to receive, we’ve only got one thing that we can all do, and that’s to love. I think it’s disappointing that we have made advancements in science and medicine, but we can’t do the simplest thing: learn to respect and appreciate each other regardless of our differences.

Do you have a personal goal set for 2025? Just continuing to try to be the best person that I can try to be in all aspects of my life. Whether it’s through work, family citizenship, regardless just be the best I can be.

Who is someone that you will be watching in 2025? Our federal government. We just went through another election, already seeing the impact through rollback of policies and I feel like it’s going to be important that we as citizens stay engaged and aware of what’s going on at the federal level and try to keep our finger on how those activities will affect us at the state and local level.