LOXLEY, Alabama —A sparse, but vocal crowd greeted U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner on Thursday at the Loxley Town Hall.

Thursday marked the end of a four-day, 14-city town hall meeting tour for Bonner, including five meetings over two days in Baldwin County.

Bonner visited the Bay Minette City Hall on Monday before beginning Thursday’s tour in Spanish Fort. Loxley was the second stop on the tour, followed by stops in Magnolia Springs and Gulf Shores.

Bonner gave a brief talk before opening the floor up for questions.

“My main purpose is to hear from you,” he said. “As a representative for the state of Alabama I work for you and I want to do what I can so that myself and my staff can go to work on your behalf.”

While Bonner said he knew there were a lot of negative topics on the horizon – including healthcare reform, immigration, gun control, the economy, Social Security, among others – he wanted to start with good news that will greatly impact Baldwin County.

“I had the privilege to be there to turn the soil at Brookley Field for the Airbus groundbreaking a few months ago,” he said. “I believe this is something that is going to change the lives of people all across the state.”

For 40 to 50 years, he said, Brookley Field sat empty.

“There was a time we didn’t think we would see it active ever again,” he said.

Twenty years ago, the auto industry came to Alabama with the building of a Mercedes Benz plant.

“People said it was crazy,” Bonner said. “Why would we pay $250 million to bring Mercedes to Alabama. That was a lot of money. But it worked.”

The initial 1,000 jobs has translated into 55,000 with Honda, Hyundai and Toyota plants creating thousands of jobs in Alabama.

“I truly believe what Mercedes did for the auto industry in Alabama, Airbus will do for the aerospace industry,” he said. “The industry will bring thousands of jobs to Alabama and those people are going to live and work in Robertsdale, Loxley, Stapleton, Stockton, Bay Minette, all through Baldwin County.”

Bonner then opened the floor for questions and residents brought up a wide range of topics, including term limits for Senators and Representatives, concerns about the sequestration, the increasing national debt and dependence on borrowing from foreign countries.

Bonner said while he is in the process of drafting a bill concerning term limits in the House and the Senate, citizens have the ultimate influence over term limits by exercising their right to vote.

“I think the biggest influence people have is their right to vote and the fact is over the last several years, people have not been using that right,” he said. “The U.S. House of Representatives is the only office in the United States that has to be elected. Senators can be appointed by the President and even the President doesn’t have to be elected.”

Just recently two local races were held to fill vacant Congressional seats, Bonner said, with less than 10 percent of the population turning out to vote.

“People ask me all the time, what are you going to do about what’s going on in Washington and the fact is, I am one man with one vote,” he said. “I can’t control how the other members of Congress vote. If you like what I’m doing, every two years you can vote to put me back in office. If you don’t like what I’m doing, then you can vote for someone else. If you want to affect change, you have to exercise your right and vote.”