I have seen so many genuine complaints to the county be met with "attention the next meeting on Tuesday, at 9AM if you'd like to voice your opinion." Do you hear how crazy that sounds to someone who works 40 hours a week? I would push for more meetings to be held in the evening, when working class people would be more likely to participate and observe.

I would also love to see more information shared on our commission's social media instead of relying on the news to tell us what community will have to deal with the next data center. As of 5/6 we have had 6 posts on Facebook this year, 3 of which were notices of hour changes at the courthouse. This also includes ensuring none of our constituents have been blocked by any official County pages — that is just wrong.

I know this is one of the biggest problems we have in every day life. I've personally pulled some maneuvers of questionable legality to move around the trucks ruining everyone's day in front of the Nitro Pilot. I don't think the commission's plan of suing them for advertising is the right way to go about it.

What if we open the middle lane and, using technology, alternate the lane itself? If you've driven around Charlotte, NC you've probably seen this technology. Instead of major road construction, a few lights that indicate whether that middle lane is oncoming traffic or available to use could enormously cut down your drive home. We can easily program the middle lane to be open both directions when leaving the schools in the afternoon. The best part of this proposal? It has nothing to do with roundabouts.

One of the biggest concerns that I have already been contacted about are problems that people have with the recent zoning changes throughout the county. We need to be able to find a balance of expansion and concern for the property rights of the surrounding citizens.

Having been in the union for ten years, I have seen how we can effectively promote business growth in a manner that remains beneficial to the people involved. We must have growth and it must be at a responsible rate. We can't sacrifice people in the name of profit. There would be no "who do you know" type politics and no bait and switch zoning proposals that change from committee meeting to commission meetings without notice.

We are one of the wealthiest counties in the state and arguably have some of the poorest roads. Poca River Rd S had a solid 4x12 chunk of road gone for MONTHS. I fully understand paving and the restrictions on weather but something as enormous as that should have been given priority in the MONTHS before it was too late to work on it.

During the winter we saw countless pictures of the county lines where you see as soon as it gets to that Putnam County line you know you have to throw it in 4-Low and pray to find some traction. Kids couldn't make it to school — we were one of the first counties to call it. Every. Single. Time. I will make it a priority to find out where the points of disconnect are and to make sure they understand we need better. Closed mouths don't get fed and people may call me many things but quiet generally isn't one of them.

Every county in the state was given money from settlements paid by opioid manufacturers due to the way they've harmed our communities. The Putnam County Commission decided the best use of these funds would be to pay off the jail bill and purchase phone hacking equipment already available through nearby agencies. That is a slap in the face to every person impacted by the opioid epidemic. Nearly $1 million distributed for those reasons and they proceeded to deny a request for $5k to purchase life saving harm reduction supplies made by Project Mayday.

I am very proud to say I am working on my sixth year of sobriety. I think we should treat people like people — not as a jail bill, not as a Facebook post to show we're "tough on crime." We should look at them as someone's son, daughter, father, mother, brother, or sister because that's who they are. They deserve a chance to live and to get better. As someone who has been to those funerals, I will fund those life saving supplies even if it means I have to go fundraise it myself.

My entire life I have been the tech geek — video games, cell phones, computers, networking. This is to show my credentials when I tell you that the way these big businesses are deploying AI data centers is not a responsible use of technology by any means. Our governor has decided this will be our state's savior, adding very little jobs while taking enormous amounts of resources. Our state legislature has since decided these centers will be entirely immune to any local zoning laws.

Thanks to HB2014, there could be 1,000 Putnam County residents show up to a County Commission meeting complaining about the noise, the increase to utility bills, or the effects on wildlife — and as Commissioner all I could do would be to tell them about the piece of legislation that took away all of our teeth. The bill also allows the state to take the lion's share of our property taxes. We only keep 30%. That sounds like socialism to me.

Follow the link below to contact your 2026 WV Legislature Candidates and view the cheat sheet of who supports repealing HB2014.