news-record.com

Six candidates are battling for four seats on Jamestown Town Council this election.

Keith Volz is the lone contender for mayor.

The council candidates are Victor Gilliland, Frank Gray, Larry Lain, Georgia Nixon-Roney, Will Ragsdale and Brock Thomas. Gray, Lain, Nixon-Roney and Thomas are incumbents.

Volz said priorities of the town should be promoting Jamestown as a good place to live, working with Guilford County Schools to ensure a good education for the town’s children and increasing the quality of life in Jamestown. To improve the quality of life, Volz suggests “maintaining our present parks and developing a new park and providing more sidewalks.”

Gray supports downtown redevelopment, reconsidering the Jamestown Bypass and maintaining the quality of the town services while looking for ways to control costs.

With the delay of the Jamestown Bypass, Gray said, in a questionnaire, that “it may offer a chance to review the need for this road and redirect funds to more critical projects.”

Lain, former town fire chief, gives the town a B+ for managing growth. “There’s room for improvements,” he said in a questionnaire. He would like the town to continue the sidewalk projects, continue to improve downtown and to work on improvements to the golf course.

Nixon-Roney believes revitalizing the town’s business and downtown area should be a top priority. “It has been difficult to work on this goal with the closing of the railroad tracks and the bridge, but it has to remain a top priority,” she said in a questionnaire. The attorney said she opposed the town’s sign ordinance, which she felt was too restrictive for local businesses.

Other priorities include fighting the Jamestown Bypass and increasing recycling efforts.

Gilliland’s top three issues he says the town is facing are employee morale, ecological impacts and transportation.

Gilliland said the council should ensure all employees of Jamestown receive the recognition for their good works and deeds. He said the current council’s recent vote to deny pay increases to town employees should be overturned. “The town employees, from the man on the garbage truck upward through the ranks, strive to provide excellent service to the (residents) of Jamestown,” Gilliland said in a questionnaire. “Unfortunately, little credit has been acknowledged by the current council for documented monetary savings, based on employee ingenuity.”

Gilliland also wants the council to pass a resolution asking Duke Energy to refrain from the use of chemicals for defoliation within town limits and to create bus stops within town limits for both High Point and Greensboro bus systems.

Ragsdale comes from a family of public servants and hopes to continue that family legacy.

Ragsdale’s key issues are identity, business and development. “Jamestown has a unique opportunity to distinguish itself through a clear identify and singular voice,” Ragsdale said in a questionnaire. Using the town’s identity is key to encouraging business development, he said.

To help that development, the town must understand the needs of its residents, he said. “We need to attract businesses that offer the services that our town’s people need and will support.”

Thomas did not return a questionnaire in time for this edition’s deadline.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth. seagraves@news-record.com