Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2023
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 9A
Candidate questionnaires
Winder City C
ouncil - at-large
John Burns
John Burns
1. What qualifies you to serve on the
city council/mayor in Winder?
Over the last 15 years, I have worked in
the car industry in numerous roles ranging
from financial manager to a service advisor
and Akins Ford. For the last 2 years, I have
been in the role of a facility manager. These
roles have taught me how to manage mon
ey, listen to people’s concerns, and main
tain areas I care about. These valuable ex
periences are all things that I believe have
helped to foster growth for me to develop
to prepare for the role of a city councilman.
2. What impact do you think the
Planned Unit Development (PUD) zon
ing district has had on the city?
How the city has used the PUD has re
sulted in a negative impact on the city.
While the propose of the PUD was to ben
efit development in challenged areas, the
city has taken the concept to streamline the
city’s growth with no regard for the effect.
I would like to use the PUD for its intended
purpose: to see the land of Winder grow in
a way that will benefit the citizens and the
city.
3. Are there specific areas of the bud
get where you believe resources should
be increased or decreased?
The Library fund will be an area I would
like to see increased. Our local Library of
fers valuable resources to the community,
and I want to ensure this fund is adequately
maintained. I will take on the initiative to
increase our Economic Development fund
by a percentage point for the city to set
an economic foundation for commerce in
the city. While our city continues to grow,
our Fire and Police department’s spending
will be increased to ensure that our first re
sponders have the tools, equipment, and re
sources to maintain the expansion and safe
ty of our community. To increase spending
in these areas, spending will inevitably
have to decrease in others. After a full as
sessment of the budget, I will advocate to
reallocate funds in the most beneficial for
the city.
4. What would you do to improve the
city’s relationship with the county?
As it stands, the ones suffering the most
are the residents, as they are funding the lit
igation between the City and County. As I
have done in my previous work, I plan to
be a liaison between the city and county to
negotiate terms to reach an agreement for
the litigation to be dismissed. This is a role
I plan to maintain to prevent any future is
sues and create cohesion between the two
parties.
5. How would you promote economic
development in the city to help diversify
the tax base and bring jobs into the city?
This further elaborates on my rationale
for why I would like to increase the eco
nomic development budget. This would al
low the city to research sustainable growth
to create marketable research-backed areas
for businesses to establish in our city. To go
along with this plan, I would like to work
hand in hand with the Chamber of Com
merce and the Down Town Development
Authority to help maximize the benefit to
Winder City Council - Ward 3
Todd Blackwell
Todd Blackwell
1. What qualifies you to serve
on the City Council in Winder?
I am a lifelong Winder resident.
I was raised here, and I attended
Barrow County Schools. I know
our history, and I have watched
Winder grow and change over the
years. I can remember when the
entire county was smaller than
Winder is now. I have been a tax
paying citizen and property owner
since I built my first home - here
in Winder - at 22 years of age,
and I have paid Winder utilities
for over 30 years now. I have a
paralegal degree and a real estate
background, and my professional
career has spanned over 34 years.
I have spent decades watching our
city and county governments. At
one time or another, I have been in
contact with nearly all of our lo
cal representatives to discuss the
issues facing our community and
provide possible solutions. I have
invested my time studying our
problems - as well as our poten
tial - as a citizen who cares. This
election needs to be about who is
going to serve you best in these
positions. I have 56 years of life
experience, and I have paid - and
at times even struggled - to even
cover my own taxes. So, I do feel
these higher bills, and I pay them
along with you. This should not
be a popularity contest but should
be about who will best serve you
and our community. I love Wind
er... I have invested in Winder...
and I want to fight for Winder...
to make it the best community that
it can be.
2. What impact do you think
the Planned Unit Development
(PUD) zoning district has had
on the city?
Winder is growing, and we do
need affordable housing. We re
alistically cannot stop the growth
from coming here but we can have
some control over what is with
in our city limits. What we need
to do for the future of Winder is
to demand higher quality proj
ects that will result in long-term
sustained value. We need to con
sider imposing higher standards
and possible impact fees on out-
of-town builders that make their
money here. I would like to see
projects that compliment Wind
er’s character and help improve
our property values. Personally, I
am not a fan of high-density be
cause I am concerned about the
potential impact on our resources,
streets, public safety, and schools.
Planned Unit Development
(PUD) has been debated a lot late
ly, and I think that to some it rep
resents just a high-density project.
I think we need to review our zon
ing ordinances in general before
we just nix the PUD because it
does afford the city the opportuni
ty to ask more of the project de
signer (i.e., make changes, unit re
ductions, and improvements, etc.)
that they might not provide oth
erwise. One advantage is that we
would have more information and
insight into the proposed project,
and it would afford us the ability
to negotiate and ask for ameni
ties or compromises to improve
the overall project and lessen the
impact on the city. Unfortunately,
zoning without a PUD involved
could be just as dense with less
input. I want us to be more selec
tive of the approval of PUD proj
ects and the areas we allow to be
high density projects. We need to
protect the traditional homeown
ers and longtime citizens as well
maintain property values. We
need to develop a new approach
to these higher density projects
and demand better for Winder. By
encouraging the development of
larger lots and larger homes, we
can help increase our tax base and
diversify our housing market.
3. Are there specific areas of
the budget where you believe re
sources should be increased or
decreased?
I think that Winder has done a
good job developing budgets in
recent years. We have had a lot of
challenges due to our deteriorat
ing infrastructure and storm water
issues. I need to investigate our
budget more in depth to make sure
that we are getting the most bang
for our buck. With that being said,
we are better for many of these
expenditures: street cleaning, the
new pothole truck, investments in
our police and fire departments -
just to name a few. Our park in
vestments are improving citizens’
lives, promoting our city, and
bringing income to Winder. Im
proving Winder’s image will pay
dividends. If we continue to im
prove our image, it will attract new
business opportunities. One of our
top priorities should be to focus on
our deteriorating streets (Stephens
Street, for example), the traffic
flow, and designs to move around
Winder more efficiently. We need
to time traffic lights, add turn ar
rows, and improve heavily used
streets. Downtown development
is great, but it does not need to
make travel for our citizens more
difficult. We need to make sure the
quality-of-life items are still a part
of our budget as they will pay us
back in effectiveness. Parks, trails,
greenspace, trees, and even more
community engagement like the
arts and community theater have
a positive impact on our citizens
and city’s image which will help
to preserve the smaller, close-
knit feel of Winder that many fell
in love with. We need to capture
these greenspaces while we still
can.
4. What would you do to im
prove the City’s relationship
with the County?
We need to re-open talks and
have serious discussions on re
solving the issues. They are hold
ing Winder and Barrow County
back from attracting quality em
ployers, industry, and opportuni
ties. It is vital that we negotiate
fair, reasonable, and responsible
resolutions to all of these conflicts.
I hope that we can end the law
suits against the city and wasted
taxpayers’ dollars by both sides. I
would like to see us resolve these
disputes and move forward. As a
Winder city councilman, my job
will be to protect the citizens and
taxpayers of Winder as well as the
city itself. Since joining this race,
I have come to realize that some
of the candidates are not running
to protect the bests interests of
the taxpayers of Winder. There
is a fiduciary responsibility to
make the best choices to protect
the interests of Winder and to be
a good steward of your tax dol
lars. Some of the proposals that I
am seeing are just the opposite of
that. They are not in the financial
best interest of the taxpayers and
Winder. We need to serve you as
a city - not give away your assets
or make poor business decisions
with your money and investments.
For example, one candidate has
proposed giving away the city’s
water system. That is 115 years
of investment and development
in a water system where millions
of dollars have gone into planning
and delivering water to over half
of Barrow County. How would
this benefit the City of Winder?
We would turn over control of our
own successful system joining it
with another entity which histor
ically does not operate profitably
or without subsidies. Further, the
citizens would then get another
layer of bureaucracy and even
more layers of government. The
city has proven it can lead and
plan for the future already.
5. How would you promote
economic development in the
city to help diversify the tax base
and bring jobs into the city?
Winder is on the right path. We
have made significant progress in
attracting business to Winder, but
more is needed. We need to con
tinue to work on strategies to im
prove the permitting process and
new business experience. We need
to increase our efforts to target and
attract desired industries and busi
nesses. We need to team up with
our allies in the Chamber of Com
merce, Downtown Development
Authority, and with Barrow Coun
ty to plan our business future, and
consider creating a joint economic
task force. An improved tax base,
lower property taxes, and more
sales tax revenue would be a sig
nificant benefit for all citizens.
If you have any questions or if
there is anything that you would
like to discuss, please feel free to
e-mail me at ToddForWinder@
yahoo.com.
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And all who
believed were
together and had all
things in common;
and they sold their
possessions and
goods, and
distributed them to
all, as any had need.
R.S.V. Acts 2:44-45
A ristotle claimed that humans are
political animals, meaning that we
Jive in a political society or
community, remarking further that only a
beast or a god would live by himself
away from others. One implication of
this view is that our minds are part
and parcel of the social fabric. Our
minds develop socially, by being
raised to speak a particular language
in a particular culture. And we are
literally connected to other people's
brains in that the smile on our face will
register in their brain and cause their brain
to make them smile, and their smiles will
have the same effect on us. We have been
taught the message of individualism for so
long that we don't often see the many ways
in which we are connected. Our minds truly
are social, think of how often we complete
each other's sentences or feel each other's
joys and sorrows. But, the philosophy of
individualism emphasizes our separateness
and makes us think that we can be just as
fully human as distinct individuals, as we
can when we are part of a larger group like
a family or a society. Since we live in a
world where it is possible to live alone, and
more people are choosing to do so, it
appears that at times we hold up the
individual as more important than the
collective.
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