Challenger Steve Bayne
See the candidate’s handout here, website here.
Answering the question, “What are the top three issues in your district?"
• Protecting Route 151 from being overdeveloped.
• Keeping Routes 151 and 6 safe.
• Fiscal diligence and discipline, managing taxes, and being transparent with residents regarding the services they receive for the taxes they pay.
Bayne’s theme throughout focused more on the long term.
Incumbent Ernie Reed
See the candidate’s handout here, website here.
Answering the question, “What are the top three issues in your district?"
• Zoning on Route 151 to control development and traffic.
• Restrictions on new short-term rentals outside of Wintergreen to help address the housing shortage.
• Look at the Nelson County Service Authority taking over the utilities now managed by Aqua.
Reed stressed his “experience, leadership, and intergrity.”
Note: On Wednesday, October 1, Nelson County Board of Supervisors and School Board candidates have “Listening Tables” at the Rockfish Valley Community Center. The event is sponsored by the area’s League of Women Voters. See the details here.
Nelson County Homebuilders’ forum for school board and board of supervisor candidates at the Rockfish Valley Community Center was held on Monday night, September 15. About 100 people attended. Candidates answered written questions submitted by the audience before the meeting. The first forum was for school board candidates and the second for candidates for the board of supervisors.
The board of supervisor candidates on stage at RVCC on Sept. 15, left to right: Ernie Reed, Roy White, Diane Harvey, Steve Bayne, Cameron Leanhan, and Jesse Rutherford.
Steve Bayne and Ernie Reed, the two candidates for the board of supervisors in this area (Central District), were joined on stage by unopposed incumbent Jesse Rutherford from the East District, along with North District Candidates Roy White, Cameron Lenahan, and Diane Harvey. (Harvey left the stage after making her opening statement.)
The panel members all worried how the county has been losing population with the number of students enrolled in the schools had been declining for about 10 years. Funding the county had depended on from state and federal programs is being cut.
Affordable housing is a significant concern. Reed pointed to acreage the county owned that might be used to help bring in more housing. Reed said the Nelson County Service Authority’s work to expand water and sewer infrastructure will help create more homes. Bayne said the county needed to find ways to protect long-term rentals. Many on the panel saw short-term vacation rentals as keeping those wanting to live and work in the county from finding a place to live here.
Everyone on the panel acknowledged that traffic on Route 151 was a concern, but the Virginia Department of Transportation controls what happens with the roads.
About 100 people were in the audience at two-hour September 15th meeting that started at 6 pm the Rockfish Valley Community Center. The forum was put on by the Nelson County Homebuilders Association.
