Head to Head: Futrelle vs. McGuinn

Story by Kathleen McFadden

Democrats Tim Futrelle and Doug McGuinn are in a primary race for the District 1 seat on the Watauga County Board of Commissioners. Because no Republican candidates filed for the race, the winner of the primary, barring a successful write-in campaign in November, will take the seat on the board.

High Country Press asked each candidate six questions based on the issues he has identified as important in the campaign. Voters can evaluate the two candidates based not only on the issues they’ve selected, but also on their responses to questions about those issues.

The questions and the unedited, verbatim candidates’ responses follow.

Tim Futrelle

1. What is your specific plan for addressing water issues in Watauga County?

Talk of a “water crisis” has been in the local, the state, and the regional news for months. We’re all aware that a potential problem exists though many disagree on how to address it. The particular kind of fractured-rock aquifer we have here in Watauga County apparently cannot continue to supply the demand from a greatly expanding number of private wells, and the allocation of “surface water” in our rivers is tightly controlled by state government.

What we don’t know is just exactly what the carrying capacity of our water table is, and I obviously need to know a lot more about that before I can confidently throw around plans for dealing with it. I understand several well-monitoring projects are underway to determine impacts on the water table from adjacent wells and prolonged drought. The more we know about the science of water, the more we’ll be able to anticipate and deal with shortages. I’m certainly very eager to learn and work with others toward long-term solutions.

The towns of both Boone and Blowing Rock have been looking to access new sources of water, since last year’s drought is expected to continue into this summer, and this process can take many years. It seems doubtful our small towns will ever have enough water to supply the entire county with a dependable source.

I understand the County Commissioners have seriously discussed supplying water along our major corridors, but the cost of the infrastructure to achieve that would require bond referendums or some sort of taxing structure that the citizens have shown little interest in. Plus there would be an issue of fairness. Why would someone in Todd support paying for a new business on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Highway to have public water, if the people in Todd could not also hook on? If a local Water Authority could be set up to sell water to willing users in the county, with no added tax burden on the general citizens, that might provide a solution. But I have a lot to learn about how a local water authority might work before I would be willing to commit myself to that.

Mostly, I oppose bringing in outside private companies to harness our water resources, develop water facilities and then sell our water back to us. This, in my opinion, would cause high rates and cause us to lose control of our water resources.

2. What previous board policies would you review first and why?

I think this County Board of Commissioners has done a very good job on most issues. I believe, however, I can bring some new ideas to the table.

Specifically, I would like to review the Board’s policies regarding appointments to various county boards and commissions. There are county boards on recreation, economic plans for the future, ambulance services, child protection, crime prevention, and public transportation, among many others.

We have good people serving on our boards who donate their time and expertise to trying to anticipate and solve problems. I think it is extremely important to appoint people with a wide range of ideas, concerns and life experiences to our county boards. These boards make important decisions and recommendations that affect all of us, so I would like to see an attempt to appoint a real diversity of opinion and backgrounds. The county currently provides an excellent online form for those who are interested in serving on a board or commission to fill out and submit electronically, but there are still many people who would be excellent board members in the county who do not participate online or who don’t know about the online opportunity. So I would like to review our policies on advertising board and commission opportunities.

I am also very excited about and supportive of the county’s Brookshire Park development. In addition to recreational fields and walking paths, the county plans its first step toward some much-needed affordable housing as part of this development. Many families in Watauga enjoy this park even now, before it is completed. I am hopeful this park can eventually be connected to the rest of the Boone Greenway as a future project. I would, nonetheless, like to also review the county’s policies regarding its parks and recreation plans for the future. There are many families in the more rural areas of the county who cannot always make the trip into Boone to enjoy places such as the Brookshire site. I think it would serve county residents well to explore the specific recreational needs of other areas in the county (Bethel, Stony Fork, Meat Camp, etc.) and try to find ways to make them happen.

3. Explain how Watauga County is currently “a model for responsible growth.” Explain the policies you favor with regard to future growth.

Long-term planning has to be an integral part of policymaking at the county level. We are a beautiful and desirable county, and those who have lived here for generations have preserved what is best about what we have.

But Watauga County has grown rapidly over the years and will continue to grow. This is a given. While development pressures cause some of the most divisive conversations in our community, they don’t have to. We all want to protect our farmlands and not have to live next door to polluters. We all want our property to be worth more tomorrow than it is today. We all want a wide range of businesses where we can shop. We all want to find ways to improve job opportunities, and we all want affordable housing so that those who work here can afford to live here, too.

We all just have a different opinion on how to get there.

All of these concerns are valid ones, and the county’s recent community meetings to poll citizens on what they want and what they don’t want is a good first step. The second step should be to turn the findings over to the county Planning Board and ask them to look for ways to accommodate those findings, followed by more input from the public.

We need to remember the hard-fought battles of the past in Watauga County over growth issues, and we need to respect each others’ perspectives and opinions on how we move forward. Otherwise, we’ll never move forward at all.

4. What specific plan do you have for working with county citizens and the Sheriff’s Office “to ensure a solid relationship, and the safety and security of our citizenry.”

I have met with Sheriff Hagaman to talk with him at length about safety and security needs and measures in the county. I am especially supportive of Sheriff Hagaman’s efforts toward community involvement in preventing domestic abuse and other crimes.

It is not the responsibility of the County Commissioners to micro-manage the activities of the Sheriff’s Department, but it is the County Commissioners’ responsibility to financially support effective measures to reduce crime and meet departmental needs. A good relationship between the County Commissioners and the Sheriff is therefore essential. I will ensure a good relationship by meeting regularly with the County Sheriff and supporting his department’s financial needs.

5. What form would your outreach to rural citizens take?

I grew up on the farmlands of rural eastern North Carolina. My grandmother was the cafeteria lady; one of my grandfathers was a farmer; my other grandfather worked in a wood mill in my hometown. My mother worked as a telephone operator (back when you could dial “0” and actually get a real person on the other end of the line) and a homemaker. My father worked as a civil service mechanic and as a part time referee and paramedic.

I worked on my family’s farmlands and in tobacco fields, had a small lawn mowing business, and worked at the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store. I know what it’s like to work hard for my money. I know what it’s like not to have any, too. I know what it’s like to try to find a house my wife and I can afford to live in, and I know what it does to the family pocketbook when my taxes come due. And I know that times are especially hard right now.

I believe in the Democratic Party tradition of representing the needs and values of regular working people, and that’s why I’m running for this office. My outreach to rural citizens will be in the form of representing their interests on the Board of Commissioners, because I have the same interests.

6. How will you ensure that Watauga High School will be “built right the first time”? What specific problems do you foresee in the school’s construction?
I am very excited about the construction of the new high school. I don’t foresee problems in the new high school’s construction, but I do see tough choices ahead. We need to make sure the school is LEED certified and environmentally sound, which saves money in the long run. Just as important is the need to be budget conscious and conservative in how we spend our money. That is why I plan to work with the current commission every step of the way, pay attention to every detail, and work hard to anticipate future needs. We don’t want to find ourselves wishing we had “just done that” years down the road. My Dad always said, “Measure twice and cut once.” We want to make sure our new school is done right the first time—we don’t have the resources to waste.

Doug McGuinn

1. What is your plan for bringing high-paying jobs to the county?

Watauga County has built its economy on the shaky platforms of tourism, low-paying service jobs, and second homes. It’s time that we here in Watauga County build our economy on more solid ground.

I would like to encourage more small, high-tech industries to locate in Watauga County. Having retrained many displaced workers in both Watauga and Ashe Counties, I know first-hand that our workforce is top notch! Also, given that both ASU and the Watauga campus of Caldwell Community College are located in Watauga County, we have a ready-made, highly intelligent, potential work force.

I would like for those to be our main tool for “luring” high-tech and computer industries to the county. Furthermore, since the owners and many of the potential employees of these industries tend to be young, I would like to stress Watauga County’s unique recreational opportunities.

2. How will you lower property taxes and maintain the current level of county services?

The next few years, I’m afraid, are going to be extremely painful. I firmly believe that Watauga County, along with rest of the nation, is going to experience an economic downturn of epic proportion. Local governments have been raising and collecting taxes and spending like there is no tomorrow. Now their chickens are coming home to roost. The property-tax gravy train has been derailed. Gone are the freewheeling tax-and-spend days.

Watauga County’s commissioners are going to have to make some painful decisions shortly. Because costs continue to rise much faster than the average family’s ability to pay for them, and are consuming a larger portion of working Watauga County residents’ paychecks with every passing year, some services will have to be scaled back, instead of another round of raising property taxes. Property taxes will have to be lowered, so our citizens won’t have to choose between buying food and gas or paying their property taxes.

We must ease the tax burden on Watauga County’s citizens by restraining spending programs that drive tax increases. We must make investments in our future, and we must take action now to rethink, retool and revitalize the county government.

I would like to see an exemption in property taxes for our elderly citizens, who, through no choice of their own, have to live on fixed incomes. I would also like to see a lower property tax rate for first homes, and a higher rate for second, third, etc. homes.

Given the magnitude of the housing bubble, I firmly believe that the decline in property values will reach unimaginable levels. As the burst housing bubble takes the economy down into recession, other revenue sources such as sales taxes and income taxes will also suffer declines. Local governments will have no choice but to shrink, and shrink as rapidly as their revenues.

3. What form will your support of county nonprofits take?

Watauga County has some of the best non-profits in the state, with some of the most dedicated (and, I would add, some of the most under-appreciated) staffs.
Watauga County’s poverty rate is on the RISE, while the county’s median household income is on the DECLINE. More and more people are having to turn to Watauga County’s non-profits for help in paying their bills, paying for their needed medicine, or obtaining enough food so that their families can survive. During the 12 years that my wife, Cinda, was the director of the Hunger Coalition, I met a lot of these people.

I think the county board of commissioners needs to work closely with these agencies, maybe even provide more economic support to insure that its citizens remain fed, warm, and in good health.

If elected to the county commission, I’ll try my best to encourage, and work with, private, non-governmental non-profits, because I feel that they can do a better job with less money than many top-heavy, governmental agencies.

4. What specific plan do you propose to help county farmers?

Being a big supporter of locally grown food, if elected to the county commission, I pledge to help our local farmers as much as possible, as well as the local Farmers’ Market.

I would like to encourage our local grocery stores to have a special section for locally grown produce. I would also like to encourage Watauga County residents to buy locally grown produce.

5. What form would your exploration of alternative energy take in Watauga County?

Watauga County is in an almost unique position for alternative energy sources, especially energy produced by wind- and water-powered turbines. One of my goals is to explore these opportunities, so that our citizens can be more self-sufficient and less dependent on our electric-power monopoly.

Many of the county’s citizens still remember what a boondoggle the wind-turbine on Howard’s knob turned out to be. I know, I sure do! At the time, I was living on Grand Boulevard, at the foot of Howard’s Knob. I remember how noisy and ineffective the wind turbine was, the few times it was running. That, however, was over twenty years ago. Much has changed since then—better technology, much more efficient (and smaller) devices, etc.

I would like to introduce Watauga County families to the use of small-scale, alternative energy systems, such as wind, water, and solar power. When Watauga County families see the savings they could make by using alternative power, and see the positive effects of being energy self-sufficient, I believe they will overcome their “fear of the unknown.”

ASU provides some terrific workshops in all aspects of alternative energy generation. Even though the costs of these workshops are a bargain, not everyone can afford them. I would like to see the county offset the costs of these workshops, maybe even sponsor them, so that they could reach a wider audience.

6. What county regulations do you oppose and what kinds of regulations do you consider would “micromanage our lives”?

The reason my ancestors settled in the mountains of western North Carolina was to get as far away from the government as possible. They valued individual freedom, and only wanted to be left alone to live their own lives, with as little governmental meddling as possible. I’m a chip off the ol’ block. I firmly believe in small government and individual freedom.

To be left alone is about all most of us here in Watauga County want. In the past, we all had been living perfectly happy lives without governmental interference and without meddlesome rules and regulations.

Unfortunately, there are some people in the county who don’t think we should be left alone, and who believe that it is their duty to micro-manage our lives by burdening us with more and more restrictive rules and regulations; making illegal things that have been perfectly legal in years past.

While fighting against a junked-car ordinance in Watauga County during the mid-1980s, one thing I quickly became aware of at the various county commission meetings I attended to discuss the ordinance was that many of the people who were for the ordinance weren’t for it because of safety reasons, but because they were concerned with “property values.” In fact, one real-estate agent even stated that the reason she wanted some type of ordinance was because one of her properties wasn’t selling because potential buyers didn’t like the looks of the yard of the house next door.

Now there is talk about taking away even more individual rights with initiatives such as “land-use planning” and so-called “smart growth.” As far as I’m concerned, most of the land- and property owners in Watauga County are smarter than they are given credit for, and are perfectly capable of doing the right thing with their property without the county government telling them what they can or can not do.

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