George Wenschhof
 |
| Katie Nash |
I sat down
with Republican alderman candidate Katie Nash recently to discuss her
campaign. Katie finished second in the
Republican primary and interestingly, received 145 less votes than alderman
candidate Derek Shackelford, who finished sixth in the Democratic primary and
did not advance to the general election.
Katie told
me it was a year ago she decided to run for alderman and that she decided to
run because she wanted to see a nonpartisan city election because she feels
issues at the local level are nonpartisan.
She told
me she grew up in Baltimore County and graduated from Hood College, where she
also received her MBA in 2008. For, the
past three years, she has worked for a defense contractor, located in Frederick, as a program manager.
The
morning I interviewed Katie, she had spent overnight in the streets so she
could see what it was like for the homeless.
She told me she spent most of her time either along Carroll Creek
downtown, N. Market Street or Baker Park.
Although,
she did not really see many homeless, she said it was cold outside overnight and
mentioned going to the bathroom was an issue due to no availability of public
restrooms. She walked up to the Whitaker
campus at Hood College to use the facilities.
While, she acknowledged she did not know where the homeless were, she
believes the city should fund a year round shelter for the homeless.
Katie also
wants the city to take an intelligent look at how they are spending money and
wants a focus on crime. One example she
was concerned about was the city purchase of the Hargett farm and worried that
these types of expenditures would lead to a tax increase for city taxpayers.
She also
told me she does not support the continued funding of the city owned Clustered
Spires golf course.
In regard
to the Harry Grove Stadium lease, Katie said she was okay with it and supported
looking at further revenue from advertising at the stadium.
She
supported what the city has done to date to develop a plan to combat the
underfunded city pension and other post employment benefits programs. Katie
added she had wished the city would have moved faster on this issue.
In regard
to overall growth issues, Katie said traffic was the biggest issue with voters
she had spoken to. She believes more
infrastructure is needed for planned development, calling the traffic congestion
surrounding Wegmans at 5 PM a nightmare.
A look at
how to finance infrastructure at the front end is needed by the city and Katie
supports the creation of a public/private infrastructure bank to handle this.
Overall,
Katie believes the city should do a better job of informing the public of
planning and zoning actions.
When I
asked her what she felt about the city Neighborhood Advisory Councils (NACs),
Katie said the candidate forums were helpful.
She added she saw their role as a combination neighborhood watch, home
owner association and community liaison with the city. She also felt they could be used in a town
hall forum manner to discuss various city issues of importance.
Another
issue Katie has heard from voters about is their desire to have the city return
to bulk trash pickup, which she supports.
She believes the city should have also done a better job at
communicating to city residents their move to once a week trash pickup also
coincided with an increase in recycling.
City
registered voters will choose their mayor and five member board of alderman on November
5.
Stay
tuned.
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