The mission of the Fayette County Conservation District (FCCD) is to sustain the quality of our area's urban and rural ecological environments by managing use of land, water, trees, and other natural resources for long term conservation.  This is accomplished through environmental education, cost-share programs, partnerships with local sustainability-focused NGOs, and direct involvement with local farming operations. Funding for FCCD comes from a .001 percent millage of Fayette County ad valorem taxes. Other funding includes Tobacco Settlement funding and revenue from FCCD equipment rentals.  

As a Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor, I share responsibility to direct FCCD funds equitably across all parts of rural and urban Fayette County to maintain and enhance ecological systems. These include programs and projects that protect soils, reduce stormwater runoff, utilize water efficiently, enhance the quality of local streams, and promote an ethic of environmental stewardship among Fayette County residents. My goal is to honor Fayette County taxpayers through high impact uses of limited funds.

If elected, I would like to be a voice for the vast majority of Fayette County Citizens who do not live on farms; I would achieve this by encouraging my fellow Supervisors to redirect more funds for projects to urban or at the least suburban areas of the county. To the disregard of the purpose of an elected body, it should, if at all possible, represent the constituents, and Fayette County is the second most populous County in the Commonwealth; we might be a population that has some farmers, but we are not a population of farmers.

Another thing that I want to accomplish is to bring attention to the role of Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor; this is a role that is in every single County, but it appears to me that very few people in Fayette County even know about these 7 elected officials. One cannot hold an elected official accountable, if one does not even realize that that elected official's office exists.

As silly as this might sound, another thing that I would like to accomplish is to simply be dignified in my holding of this office. It is my understanding that these last few years, the board has not gone without controversy. From one of the supervisors being dismissed over an unsigned oath in addition to having been served with a temporary protection order, along with further allegations that I will not address, to a different supervisor resigning from the board then writing an op-ed for the Lexington Herald Leader that does not paint the board in the best light. Boring does not mean being lazy. It does not mean being unproductive. As much as people might love media gossip, our preference should be that our elected officials be quite boring.

My primary focus is on outreach. Many of the wonderful programs that FCCD offers were a surprise to me. For example, I learned about the backyard conservation grants through a completely random happenstance - the Facebook algorithm luckily dropped a post about it from a gardening group in front of me. I'd love to increase our presence in HOA and Neighborhood meetings or mailings. Also, for events like the annual tree giveaway, we can work with local businesses to increase our reach: Pemberton's Greenhouses also holds tree giveaways, for one, so it's only natural we would work with them.

While our district is incredibly urban, the agriculture programs that FCCD funds help us all, so this increased urban outreach should absolutely not come at the expense of soil compaction, water quality, cover crops, or dead animal removal. I feel we all can agree that poor soil, polluted water, and dead animals in the fields are bad for us all.

The work FCCD does is clearly having an impact - a net good to the county. I think the most important focus for us should be on bringing more people to the table, especially in low-income areas. A community garden getting half of its cost covered by one of our grants could pay dividends to countless Lexington families! That's the kind of work I want to support!