Issues to Think About When Casting a Vote

The News & Advance
Published: May 4, 2008

Tomorrow’s Election Day in the city of Lynchburg, and we hope thousands of voters in each of the city’s four wards will turn out to cast their ballots in the City Council races.
Here’s a recap of who’s running in each of the four districts:
* Ward I: One-term incumbent Mike Gillette is facing two challengers, retired businessman Jim Martin and Lynchburg College professor Tom Shahady;
* Ward II: Incumbent Ceasor Johnson is running for a second term in office against challenger David Johnston;
* Ward III: Councilman Jeff Helgeson is seeking a second term with a challenge from Nat Marshall and
* Ward IV: Political newcomers Turner Perrow, an engineer in the city, and Marie Waller, a retired teacher, are facing off to replace Councilman Joe Seiffert, who chose to retire after eight years in office.
Lynchburg faces many challenges in the near term: a slowing national economy that will inevitably impact localities, a meddling state government that loves to dictate but hates to provide revenues, an aging infrastructure that needs attention, core urban areas in need of revitalization ... the list goes on.
Here are some issues voters should think about when making their choices for City Council.
* Lynchburg’s public school system is an asset that need to be protected, nurtured and improved. The student population is changing from what it was 15-20 years ago; one stark statistic is that more than half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Students coming from economically challenged — poor — families necessarily have fewer resources; they’re less likely to have computers and high-speed Internet access at home, for example. That means they’re more costly to educate. The number of students is dropping, too, meaning there’ll be fewer state dollars coming in.
Aging schools are in dire need of renovation or replacement. Sandusky Middle will be replaced with a new school at a cost of more than $20 million; next up is Heritage High School, which is 800-pound gorilla in the room no one wants to confront. Is it possible to renovate, as was done with E.C. Glass, or is it necessary to start from scratch and build new? That’s going to be an issue confronting the next council.
Council will also be naming several new members to the School Board over its term. The people council selects should be hard-nosed folks, willing to question anything and everything. They should come from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. They should also be unequivocal, staunch supporters of public education. Period.
* Because Virginia’s cities are landlocked, thanks to the state’s shortsighted annexation moratorium, a city like Lynchburg, to remain solvent, is going to have to develop more densely. Not everyone’s going to like that, but it’s a fact of life. The challenge will arise from balancing development with quality of life and finding the elusive point of equalibrium. A supercenter may have to go where a small grocery was; traffic may become worse; the open field down the street may wind up getting rezoned for commercial or business purposes. That’s life. That’s also the job of a council member.
* Lynchburg has one asset unique in the state: its downtown. There are critics who say the city is wasting taxpayer dollars by revitalizing the urban core. Nonsense, for no city is healthy with a rotting core. What City Council must do is spend those dollars smarter and wiser. Ending downtown revitalization efforts is not on the table; doing it differently is.
Council needs seven strong leaders: folks who’ll take positions and stand by them, folks who aren’t afraid of ruffling feathers. The public and the city aren’t served well by a council filled with nothing but cheerleaders and civic boosters.