A surprise proclamation was given at Lexington’s Feb. 6 Town Council meeting that left Steve Baker on the brink of tears.

The proclamation was given by mayor and council to thank Baker, elected to council in 2016, for his service to the town. It followed Baker’s announcement that he is resigning from council due to an impending move to Orlando.

Baker revealed his resignation at the close of his turn giving the standard end-of-meeting announcements.

Municipal Clerk Becky Hildebrand told the Chronicle that a special election to fill Baker’s at-large seat for the remainder of his current term, which expires in 2025, will be held May 2, with filing opening Feb. 24 and continuing until March 6.

After making his announcement, Baker spent about 10 minutes speaking to his time on council, saying that he felt like he was called by God to run for a seat.

“I never imagined that I would sit on a town council or be in any kind of an elected position,” he said. “It's been a real honor.”

He lightheartedly highlighted changing a requirement to get signatures to get on the ballot in Lexington as one of his accomplishments while in office, remembering consecutive days of rain that nearly derailed his ambition of going beyond the then-required number and getting 1,000 signatures.

“I’m like, ‘OK, God, OK,’” Baker recalled, saying that he momentarily thought about taking the rain as a sign that being elected to council wasn’t in the cards.

More seriously, he pointed to traffic improvements as an emphasis for him during his time on council, expressing particular pride in seeing the recent widening of North Lake Drive near downtown get completed.

He also highlighted the fight to remove “one of the largest polluters in our area” in Blue Granite Water Co., from which the town took over a wastewater plant that had been criticized for leaking sewage into Lake Murray after a long legal dispute in 2020.  

“Blue Granite Co. was polluting our rivers, polluting our lake,” he said. “We can proudly say that they are not doing that anymore.”

Mayor Steve MacDougall pulled out the framed proclamation and presented it to Baker following his speech.

“Your contribution, what you did in a very short period of time was tremendous, and I can't thank you enough,” the mayor said.