(11/2022)

Mail in voting has started and early voting will be under way, and we will wrap the campaign up on November 8th! I am very happy with how the campaign has been going and I am looking forward to a positive outcome. We had our last forum with all the candidates recently in Thurmont hosted by the Thurmont & Emmitsburg Lion’s clubs. It was well attended and gave the public the opportunity to hear all the at-large candidates.

I have continued to knock doors and listen to voters. The top issues that I am hearing people are concerned about are growth, education, public safety, traffic, the economy, and the environment. Many have stated that they think Frederick County has grown too fast and too densely in certain areas of the county. I have pointed out that the current County Executive and County Council have not approved new residential growth in the last 8 years. The only development that was approved was residential age restricted housing. A new County Executive and County Council can change that. My position is that we can have reasonable where the infrastructure is in place to handle it. There must be school capacity, road capacity, first-responder capacity, water capacity and park capacity. We cannot continue to build where these are not present. Frederick County is a desirable place to move to and growth will continue, but it must be responsible.

Our Education system in Frederick County is strong. Great education is our county benefits everyone! Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) and Frederick Community College (FCC) are both great assets of our county and we must continue to strongly support them financially. FCPS receives the second lowest funding per pupil in the state of Maryland. We must do better than that and provide the funding to lower class sizes and increase pay for our employees. I also want to see a new Career & Technology Center built to handle the needs of our students. Almost every program at the CTC has a waiting list and these programs lead to good jobs for graduates. The County can take a role with FCPS and FCC to make this happen and I will work to get that done.

Public Safety is another area that I strongly support. People that live in our county want to know that our police and fire and ambulance system will meet their needs. I come from a family with several law enforcement officers, and this will always be a top priority of mine. We must fund and make sure that that our law enforcement and fire and rescue services have the funds they need to be fully staffed and equipped to handle our needs. I am fully committed to supporting that in the budget. I have been and will continue to be very supportive of the Student Resource Officers (SRO) program in our schools. I will support additional budgeting to extend the program to include additional officers.

Frederick County has significant traffic issues in many areas. The county needs to work with our State and Federal partners to get funding to improve many of these issues. The recent announcement of funding for the expansion of Route 15 is good news and I will support this project. We need to make sure that any new growth does not contribute further to congestion on the roads. I support expanding our bike and walking paths throughout the county.

The economy has taken a turn in the wrong direction with high inflation. The County needs to be sensitive to the increased costs to our residents of gas, groceries, and other goods that we purchase. We need to be sensitive to the impact that this has on our fixed income and low-income residents. As a county, we need to be sensitive to the impact that this is having on financially strained residents. This year the county passed tax relief for lower income residents, and we need to continue to look at programs like that which allow people to be able to continue to afford to live in our county. I would also be open to looking at expanding programs for tax credits for real estate taxes based upon the individual’s income and assets.

Frederick County is a beautiful place to live and visit and we need to protect that. I support increased funds for farm preservation and expanding our parks and trails throughout the county. I have served on the Parks and Recreation committee and have a good understanding of what we have and what we need to continue to provide the quality of life that residents expect. We are blessed to have so many great parks and we need to continue to add to and expand and improve our existing parks. I support the County’s bike and pathways plan and would advocate for dedicated funding to complete it. We must also protect our environment and make sensible decisions that value our environment to protect this great asset!