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Campaign Phone
7854240959
Personal Biography
Having lived thru a horrendous cancer battle in 2005 and seen how wonderful people in Douglas County are, I have dedicated my life to giving back. I received so much support (meals for my family for 9 months and so much more) that I will never be able to give back as much as I received. I will continue the rest of my life trying.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University in 1986
Community/Public Service
3 Terms as an elected member of the Eudora School Board. 10 years as a board member of the East Central Kansas Cooperative for Education. 6 year term on Douglas County Fairboard. Current member Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Commission
We need to be prepared for the change that is coming from the east in the form of the Panasonic plant. We need to be prepared for an influx of workers and families. This will require new neighborhoods, new apartment complexes, new roads and many other things. While these would appear to be issues for cities such as Eudora and Lawrence, the county needs to do what it can, particularly from a business/industrial perspective to attract interest into our area. Businesses that can support Panasonic can be planned and constructed much more quickly than new neighborhoods. The county planning department along with the planning commission and the county commission can pave the way for growth in Douglas County. With growth, that means roof tops, whether housing or business. New roof tops means increased revenue in the form of taxes and can lead to overall tax decreases for everyone.
In order for Douglas County to have broader employment opportunities, we need to attract the businesses that can give us that. This ties right into the previous question about infrastructure and capital. We need to get and be prepared to give Panisonic feeder businesses/companies a reason to want to come to Douglas County. By doing that and attracting new opportunies, we will increase our employment opportunities. We don't need another strip mall or two that may or may not survive a decade. We need true business opportunities that can pave the way for well paying jobs, which will also give people a reason to want to live here.
In todays world, communication is extremely difficult. Printed newspapers are shrinking in readership and in many cases, particularly small towns such as Eudora, disappearing completely. A subset of the population may be comfortable gathering their news from online sources or social media. A large percentage of the population is not. We have to figure out how to make people aware of what is going on in the county. Eudora struggled with this (and still does today) when the Eudora News ceased operation as a newspaper. Thanks to the KU School of Journalism we now have the Eudora Times, and this does reach quite a few households, but not everyone. All organizations in Douglas County are still figuring out how to spread the word using things such as social media. We need to figure it out. There is no more channel 6. KC and Topeka television stations aren't spreading the word about Douglas County. We have to figure it out ourselves.
