FLORENCE -- Mayor Stephen J. Wukela announced today he would be running for re-election.

"I came to office at a time of historic struggle and change. In spite of the numerous obstacles, both political and economic during my first term, we have, nevertheless, accomplished a great deal. When I came to office the City of Florence, particularly the North side, was plagued by abandoned property and vicious gang crime. In my first three years, we have hired 15 new police officers and organized a community action team, which participates in community policing in which the officers work as diligently to divert young people from crime as they do to enforce the law," said Mayor Wukela in a news release Tuesday. 

The mayor listed improvements in Levy Park in East Florence, construction of a tennis facility, a decrease in juvenile arrests, and success in dealing with abandoned houses among his successes.

Wukela said he had helped to grow jobs, including recruiting Johnson Controls to Florence County. 

"These accomplishments have taken place in an environment of increasingly angry and increasingly empty rhetoric by my opponents. These voices would rather quarrel than act, as they have for decades; allowing the problems of crime, poverty, and disparity to persist. That old era is ending. The new generation believes in an urgent pragmatism that demands results over rhetoric. Simply, there is more work to be done and I want to finish the job," Wukela said.