John believes in looking at the world as a glass half full, stop complaining and saying we can’t,

and start working with what you have to make things better. 

Keep it simple and use common sense, the three main tenets to John’s plan are as follows:

 

 

Affordability

  • Housing – we need to increase our available housing stock here in Kent County. We have a severe lack of “middle housing,” homes for our middle-class residents, folks who were born here and raised here, but have been boxed out of homeownership due to rising costs and lack of inventory.
  • Increase diversity of housing types. We need to increase the types of housing available for all stages of life, from just starting out, to downsizing with dignity and all stages in between.
  • Senior rental apartments – Kent County has a severe lack of affordable housing for our seniors, forcing many to stay in their homes when they can no longer afford to maintain them. Nationwide and also in Kent County much of our housing stock is owned by the baby boomer generation. Providing new housing opportunities for this senior generation will also add more affordable housing stock for our upcoming generations to raise their family.  Achieving multiple goals all at once.
  • Shared resource agreements between our Towns and the County and reduction of duplicated services is absolutely necessary. You may have heard of this as Tax Differential.  As a former Mayor himself, John proposes taking a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction approach to addressing this.  As Mayor, John directly negotiated agreements with the County for the benefit of his Galena residents to reduce redundancy and costs, keeping taxes rates low.  Working together as partners versus adversaries makes for good government.
  • Streamlining processes and utilization of AI are necessary to improve our processes and help our county staff grow in their roles. AI technologies are changing the daily process of government and increasing efficiencies.  John supports a structured approach to utilization of AI, creating guardrails for safety, while increasing our productivity and reducing costs to keep our taxes and fees low.

 

People

  • This is simple… Kent County needs PEOPLE! Our population has declined 4.4% since 2010.  It’s time to reverse course and grow.
  • The fear of not wanting to become sub-urban sprawl like nearby states has created a culture of NO GROWTH. This has led to increased costs and a smaller tax base to share in those costs. 
  • John proposes Kent County can do it their own way, we don’t need to be Delaware! We’re small and charming for a reason, let’s take a sensible approach to addressing this issue – under John’s leadership Kent County will set a goal of a 10% increase in population over the next decade (current county population approx. 19,000 people x 10% = 1,900 new residents over 10 years, this would be the approximate size of the Towns of Millington and Rock Hall combined).
  • Growth areas should be primarily focused in and around our existing incorporated municipal areas serviced by public water and sewer to control sprawl and preserve our farmlands and open countryside.  Our Towns and the County have severely underutilized utility systems causing cost per household to be unaffordable for our residents and businesses.  Adding more subscribers to these systems will spread costs over a larger basis, reducing per subscriber monthly/quarterly costs and allowing for increased savings for capital repairs long term.
  • We need families for our schools, we need consumers for our businesses, counties with increasing populations also become eligible for additional state and federal funding allowing us to double down on our infrastructure investments and create economic incubators for jobs!
  • Focus on creating an economic incubator zone along the 301 Corridor where utility systems are already or are planned to be built. John would propose creating a county Housing Coordinator position whose primary responsibility would be to shepherd projects through the process of working with our municipalities and county departments to cut barriers to entry to achieve our goals.
  • As a self-employed businessperson himself John believes you utilize your resources to their fullest potential to achieve prosperity.
  • Maintain quality of life for our existing residents.   John believes that growth should not be a burden on those who already live here.  Private developers must pay their fair share for infrastructure expansions and improvements when growth occurs, and special taxing districts can be established to offset ongoing costs to maintain community facilities and infrastructure.  If we think outside the box and use common sense we can achieve managed growth and maintain a high quality of life for those of us who have lived here forever.
  • Grow Community - not just in population, but instilling community engagement and volunteerism in our young people is absolutely necessary. Our volunteer fire companies, community organizations, and churches are the back bone of our community and we need to support them in growing their membership and community impact. 

 

 

Schools

  • Investments in our school system and our young people are investments in our future economic vitality.
  • We need to stop putting down our schools and start being their biggest champions.
  • Construction of our new county middle school should take top priority. The longer we hold out the higher the costs increase for construction due to rising inflation and economic uncertainties.  The recent adjustments to the state school funding formula will ease the financial burden of the county government.
  • Believe it or not, but increased student enrollment in our schools actually increases our levels of state funding per pupil, so as we grow our young population our schools benefit from additional funding.
  • Safe, modern, and efficient schools increase student performance and reduce truancy issues.
  • Teaching our young people about fiscal and personal responsibility creates our next generation of County thought leaders.
  • Increase community engagement in our schools. Whether you have currently children in our schools or not it is your civic responsibility to mentor our youth.  Coaching, mentoring, and teaching our young people about their communities they live in fosters intellectual curiosity and a commitment to stay as they grow into young adults.  We need to end the “brain-drain” that occurs in rural America and keep our young people engaged.  As Mayor, John taught annual “If I were Mayor” sessions, teaching the 4th graders at Galena Elementary School about the importance of civic engagement, as well as environmental education every year on Arbor Day, planting trees across his Town with students.

 

 

 

This doesn’t have to be hard, but with a positive attitude and community engagement

we can make it happen!  

 

Let’s get it done Kent County!