Infrastructure & Basic Services
Water
- Bedford County needs to unify the water infrastructure and ensure that the actual capacity needed can be used to provide water to everyone. The water needs to be clean and regularly tested. We need to expand the availability of water to every resident, even in the furthest parts of the county. If local water companies aren’t providing reasonable service or overcharging residents, the county needs to step in and take this over because water is literally the most basic thing we can provide for the condition of life.
Roads
- A list of priority areas needs to be created with public input so safety and travel needs are prioritized based on actual feedback from residents. We have too many areas in the county with roads that are too narrow, lacking proper safety reflectors and paint, and seemingly no regulation on where dump trucks and construction equipment can travel. The cost of repair and upkeep is not an excuse- roads are the basic infrastructure the government is responsible for. Nothing happens in a county without the roads. They have to be prioritized and maintained according to use and public feedback. No more bandage patches on potholes that collapse immediately. We can do better. Roads are needed for the condition of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Transparency
- Information that is public isn’t necessarily accessible or understandable. There’s no excuse for citizens to have to chase down departments and do math to figure out how their tax dollars are being spent. The government should regularly provide easy-to-understand updates and explanations about the way tax dollars are spent on infrastructure and who gets contracts with the county and why. The government works for the people, and leaders forget that.
Planning
There is no excuse to pretend like we don’t know what future capacity needs will be on infrastructure. We have enough data to go off of that we must look forward and prepare, and not keep inching through pretending we don’t know what’s happening and why. Our population growth will not slow down anytime soon, our infrastructure will not require less capacity anytime soon, and therefore we have to plan for what’s coming. We need to get up-to-date and get AHEAD of the incoming population boom. There’s going to be more money spent catching up from emergencies and panic than could be spent by planning for future use.
Developer Contribution
Developers have to pay to play. We need to change the way we look at who we let take our land and profit from it, and we need to use every tool at our disposal to hold developers accountable for updating infrastructure and the longer-term impacts of usage. We don’t need to keep letting folks come in, plop entire subdivisions down, and get out of town with their dollars while we foot the bill with dollars and our health. We know what impacts come with each new house. Developers need to pay for it, not current residents.
County-Municipalities Coordination
A county mayor’s job has to be coordinating every area of the county. Relying on the excuse that different towns have their own governments doesn’t mean the county mayor gets to check out. If there is any job I am certain of that a county mayor has, it’s to make sure communication works between municipalities with each other and with the county. Residents aren’t thinking in small areas, neither should the government. Why have a county-wide mayor at all if there’s not a county-wide effort by the mayor to improve the lives of residents?
