Protecting District 7's Communities and the Heroes Who Serve Them
Living in the Swan Creek community, I know firsthand the critical importance of our first responders and our local infrastructure. All of District 7 is entirely rural, which presents unique public safety challenges that urban and suburban areas simply do not face. Out here, a washed-out road or a cellular dead zone isn't just an inconvenience—it is a matter of life and death when you are waiting for an ambulance or a fire truck. I will use my operational experience to ensure our local law enforcement, volunteer fire, and EMS departments have the funding, modern equipment, and infrastructure required to effectively protect every rural corner of our district.
Infrastructure as a Public Safety Lifeline: In a 100% rural district, infrastructure and public safety are the exact same issue. If our county roads are crumbling or our bridges cannot support the weight of a modern fire engine, our first responders cannot do their jobs. My "Infrastructure-First" mandate ensures we are proactively maintaining the rural lifelines that connect communities like Swan Creek to emergency services.
Aggressive Grant Acquisition for Rural Departments: Our rural volunteer fire departments and county EMS should not have to rely on bake sales and donations to keep their trucks running, nor should we rely on residential property tax hikes. I will champion a highly organized, data-driven approach to secure state and federal public safety grants—specifically those earmarked for rural development—to purchase the modern life-saving equipment our departments desperately need.
Retaining Experienced Personnel Who Know Our Backroads: A well-trained first responder who already knows the winding backroads of District 7 is an invaluable asset. When our paramedics and deputies leave for better-paying counties, we lose that geographic experience and waste taxpayer money constantly retraining new hires. We must prioritize stable, competitive wages for our EMS and Sheriff's deputies so the men and women who protect our rural communities can actually afford to live here.
Preventing Sprawl from Draining Rural Resources: Unchecked, high-density residential development in other parts of the county pulls our limited emergency resources away from the rural communities that need them. By enforcing strict concurrency policies, I will ensure that outside developers pay their fair share to expand emergency services alongside their projects, guaranteeing that resources are never siphoned away from places like Swan Creek to cover the costs of corporate sprawl.
Because all of District 7 is rural, keeping our neighborhoods safe requires an operations-minded approach that directly ties infrastructure to emergency response. Living in Swan Creek, I understand that our first responders cannot effectively serve our community without well-maintained roads and reliable equipment. Rather than relying on local property tax hikes, I will aggressively target rural-specific state and federal grants to fully equip our departments. By fighting for competitive wages to retain experienced personnel who know our county, and ensuring new development doesn't drain our emergency resources, we will build a modern, fully-funded public safety network that protects every resident of District 7.