Fr. Co. Candidates Square Off in Political Forum

Four candidates for the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and four candidates for the Franklin County Board of Education held forth Saturday on why they’re running for office at a special political forum at the Franklin Springs City Hall meeting room.

All this week we’ll be sharing excerpts from the forum and will be airing the full political forum this weekend.

Sponsored by the Franklin County Republican Party, those attending were able to submit questions to the candidates for them to answer.

Moderator John Hylton commended the candidates for being involved in their community and he asked the public to pray for the candidates.

“It’s an important year for us, not only as a county but for our state and our country as well,” he said. “So it’s important to have people involved. I do want to thank our candidates. You know it’s easy to complain and fuss and say things to people. It’s another thing to put yourself out there. And each one who’s here today has put themselves out there. And so I appreciate each and everyone who is doing that. That is a thankless job that they have and I guarantee you they get thanked very, very little and they get fussed at a whole lot.”

Hylton added that with the important races this election year, more people need to get involved.

“You don’t have to run for political office to be involved. Everybody in here has the potential to volunteer; whether it’s volunteering with your local party, poll workers, or it’s just volunteering to be on a candidate’s team to help them get elected, each and everybody in here can help with that,” he explained. “So, I want to encourage us to do that because it’s very important to do that. We don’t only have important races here in the county, we have some big races in the State and we have some huge federal races as well. So, we need more people to get involved. We need more people out there working.”

In the Board of Commission races, Districts 3 and 4 are open.

Running for District 3 to replace Commissioner Ryan Swails is Elizabeth Busby of Carnesville and Chris Snider of Canon.

Busby is running on a platform of unity and planning.

In answering the question, of how to attract good industry to Franklin County without jeopardizing our important agricultural industry, Busby said planning is key.

“This is a great concern of mine and I’ve been doing some research on the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to see what we can do to attract new businesses and new industry. Franklin County needs more industry. If you talk to our fire departments, police departments, school board, they’re struggling to make ends meet. So, we definitely need to bring in more industry. I think the new UDC that will be coming out will provide a lot of good information on how we plan to grow. And if we all work together as a community, along with our leaders, we can make sure that that’s a good plan, and then we can work to protect that plan, making sure that those industries stay more centered around our municipalities and the I-85 corridor. I have a great concern about losing ag land. That’s a great concern about losing ag land. And making sure that’s protected is a number one priority to me,” she said.

Busby said to make that happen, County leadership and stakeholders need to work together.

Her challenger Chris Snider agreed that managing growth in Franklin County is vital to the county’s future success.

“I believe the biggest thing is looking at what type of growth we’re talking about. Industrial growth is the biggest way to offset the tax burden. So, making sure that we’re not getting too far into the housing growth and not having enough industrial growth. We have areas that are prime for industrial growth, which is key. We just have to make sure we’re getting the right stuff in. And also I think everybody agrees that keeping everything in certain locations along the I-85 corridor and keeping the housing growth in the municipalities and out of the agricultural areas will help not put too big a burden on emergency services that are located in those areas. Industrial growth done right can help offset that tax burden and hopefully, we can get that going before too much housing comes in,” he said.

You can hear the full Franklin County political forum this Sunday at 12:03 here on 92.1 WLHR News.