Current Palmyra Supervisor Bob Ullenbruch confirmed that he is not running for re-election so the running field is wide open.
“My main reason is preparation for the future,” Booker said of her re-election plans. “I got on the Board eight years ago to prepare for infrastructure, and I think we are at the point now where it is pretty evident we are going in that direction.
“In order to finance our core services for our community we must get some economic development up there at Zion Crossroads,” she continued. “And not only there – we need to have a plan for water in all of the growth areas. Once we can see that we’re on our way with water from the James River, and when we decide on the Department of Corrections, whether we’re going to do water or just do sewer, then we need to start planning for how we’re going to get that water from Columbia up Rt. 6 to Dixie so that we can start moving the water into other areas. We need to have a plan, and we are working on one.”
Ultimately Booker wants to lower taxes for Fluvanna homeowners. “I can’t promise that because before we get there [with businesses shouldering more of the burden] we may have to go up a little bit. But that is the long-term objective, to try to get a sustained tax rate for people so we aren’t jerking them around every time we turn around.”
If she is re-elected Booker’s goal for the next four years is infrastructure. “I think we’ve had some accomplishments,” she said. “I feel good about the eight years that I’ve been on the Board. A lot of it has to do with our leadership – our county administrator and his staff – which moves us forward with information, research, and the facts. That will continue so I am confident that we’re going to have more successes in infrastructure. I’m also confident that the community will support these initiatives. Some won’t agree, but when the majority of the community moves forward along with you and they see the vision, then you can accomplish things.”
Booker hopes her Fork Union constituents will vote for her in November. “I think if they have been observing my actions, what I have done, then they will have seen my involvement,” she said. “I am totally involved in the county, not just the Fork Union area, but the county as a whole. Anything that affects the county I am going to find out about it, I’m going to be there. I’m very visible.
“All my career my role has been to be a servant,” she continued. “I’m very concerned about our school system. I want them to be the best. I want us to be able to support what they need because I see that they can get behind in technology, and we cannot allow that in this day and society. And we need to have a career and technology program in other areas where our students can leave high school and know they can get a job.
“I want economic development so that people can live and work here,” she concluded. “I don’t want children to have to go off to Richmond or New York to get a job. I want families to stay together and grow together.”
Fork Union citizens elected Booker to the Board in 2007 for a four-year term. In 2011 they re-elected Booker for another four years, which conclude at the end of 2015. Should she win re-election she would serve through the end of 2019.
More details on Ullenbruch’s decision to not run for re-election will follow soon.
