George Wenschhof
 |
| Carol Hirsch (Middle) |
My
interview by phone, of Carol Hirsch; Democratic candidate for mayor of The City
of Frederick, was a first for me.
Carol, who
is deaf, quickly corrected me via the interpreter and asked that I refer to her
as an ASL User (American Sign Language User).
I had meet
Carol twice briefly, and found her to have an engaging personality. The
opportunity to discuss her race for mayor was intriguing to me.
I began by
asking her a little about herself and she told me she had lived in New York
City, has three children and after divorce, was a single mom. One of her children Cj, I met at the
Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) candidate forum held earlier in the week.
Her education
included media technology and she liked film and video. She added she has been working at Wal-Mart
for the last nine years. Interestingly,
several friends of mine, when hearing I was interviewing Carol, were quick to
say they knew her from shopping at the Rt. 26 store and always found her fun
and friendly when they went through her line to check out.
When I
asked her why she was running for mayor, Carol quickly answered with “why not?
I have strong leadership skills, strong organization background and I’m good at
politics.”
The area
Carol mentioned she was most interested in was environmental issues and spoke
of the need for recycling to become more standardized.
When I
asked her if she supported Frederick County government building an incinerator
to handle solid waste disposal, she referred to the Al Gore movie “An
Inconvenient Truth” and said “a better understanding and more facts were needed
before proceeding.”
To help
promote environmental awareness, she would propose not using electricity for
five minutes one day.
I also
asked Carol about blighted properties in the city and she said “the mayor’s
task force was a good start and she would want a strong focus on this and get
it resolved.”
In regard to
a downtown hotel/conference center, she felt government did not have money to
help with this now and she would not support any government funding for the
project. She asked “Why do we need it?” She
added “there are many other things to work at before this.”
In closing
my interview, I informed Carol I had noticed she had not filed the first
candidate campaign finance report due on August 12. She said there had been some confusion and
she would get it in on October 7 when the next report is due.
I thanked
her for taking the time to interview with me and I also thank the interpreter services
who were very helpful throughout the entire interview.
The three
Democratic candidates for mayor are Maryland state delegate Galen Clagett, city
alderman Karen Young and Carol Hirsch.
The three
Republican candidates for mayor are incumbent Randy McClement, city alderman Shelley
Aloi and former mayor Jeff Holtzinger.
Jennifer
Dougherty, who does not face a primary opponent, is a unaffiliated candidate
for mayor.
The City
of Frederick primary election is September 10.
Stay
tuned.
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