"1. Why should voters select you for the county commission?"
Note: The Pocahontas Times asked all county commission candidates to answer 6 questions, to be published one each week. Below is my response to this week's question.
Central to why you should select me as your next county commissioner is the answer to the question of why I am even running in the first place. After all, it speaks to intent and motivation.
Deciding to run for this office was not a decision I made lightly. Looking back, the seed of that decision was probably planted a couple of years ago; when we all started hearing of the controversial sewer plant and how eminent domain was going to be used.
On my own time and of my own volition, I started the website www.SaveTheSharpFarm.com and began to lend my energy and efforts to the cause. Pretty much all I knew was that this was wrong, that the whole manner in which this process had been executed was subversive and at odds with the community's wishes, and that there must be something I could do to help.
As time went by, one of the most disturbing trends I observed in this debacle was the cavalier and dismissive treatment given the issue by our county commission. I began to understand that the commission had great power in deciding the fate of Pocahontas County, and that the commission was using that power unwisely and without regard to the will of the community. I began to see that our commission was just doing what Thrasher Engineering and Snowshoe/development interests wanted. Mostly, I began to see that our county commission would have to change if our future was going to be determined openly and fairly by the community itself, according to the wishes of the people who have actually forged their livelihoods here for many a generation, as opposed to the recommendations and agendas of those who think, for instance, that your family's field is just a "dot" on a map.
Fortunately, much progress on this particular issue is being made. Yet other issues loom. We need to protect our farms from unchecked private advances. We need to remember the importance of enabling the first homes of our children first. We need a fresh, young vision for ways to bring technology into our economy; a proactive approach to finding ways to wed the resources and industries of our county so as to become more self-investing. We need to stand strong on the long-term investment of our unique back yard and our county's tourism industry. And we need to make sure that short-term decisions don't put us at risk of inheriting environmental and economic liabilities on down the road (e.g. the East Fork/tannery episode at Frank).
As I see it, one role of the county commission is to lead in finding ways to meet these challenges and solve these problems. I also feel that a second and equal role of the commission is to support the community as it does the same.
Through my actions and my conduct, you have seen that I possess the intelligence, integrity, humility and maturity to both lead and listen when dealing with important, weighty topics. You have seen, in fact, what that seed planted in me has become. This is why I am running for county commissioner, and this is also why you should select me to serve in that post.