Falmouth Supervisor Candidate, Setzer says County Needs Smarter Development

Valerie Setzer, Democratic candidate for the Falmouth district seat on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, is running up against Republican Mary “Meg” Bohmke and Independent Robert Belman in the November General Election. She is running for the seat because she says that she believes she would be able to facilitate a more balanced perspective on the board of supervisors.

“I look at things in a more well-rounded perspective,” she says. “When considering developments, I will ensure that the people that are willing to develop new projects in this county take into consideration and compensate the county with the necessary infrastructure needs that accompany those projects. This includes roads, schools, public transportation and accessibility to fire and rescue services (and so on).”

Setzer recently retired as a terminal air space manager at the Federal Aviation Administration. She says her professional skills would be a beneficial aspect for the board.

“I have a lot of the skills that are necessary to make effective decisions and understand the issues, such as managing the budget, managing projects, facilitation and contracting,” she says. “I’ve also dealt a lot with education and human relations skills. I have a caring personality and I want to do the best that I possibly can for the people of this county.”

Setzer says that there has been talk about the poor relationship between members of the board of supervisors when making certain decisions. She hopes to be able to help facilitate these meetings to make sure they stay positive and focused on the objective.

“Smart Growth”

Setzer says one of the biggest challenges for the county has been keeping up with the continuing developments.

“One of the biggest challenges is smart growth. We’re not keeping pace necessarily for county services, schools and infrastructure,” says Setzer.  At a recent board of supervisors meeting, Setzer says in light of recent events, one of the topics that were mentioned was the lack of urgent and available medical emergency personnel.

 “Through my research I found that the small amount of money that was reduced in taxes in recent years would have made a tremendous difference in being able to more adequately staff [medical and emergency services],” she says. “I think the developers need to pay adequate proffers when they want to put new projects in place because we need these extra services.”

Additionally, Setzer says she will advocate for improvements to transportation, education and employment.

Transportation

Setzer says that traffic congestion is a big issue for the county. She says she would like to see improvements to big roads such as U.S. 1 and 17 and the access to I-95, as well as the smaller roads around the community.

“We need to keep pace with what the needs are in transportation,” she says. “When we establish new homes, we are going to have families that commute and kids will go to new schools, we need to ensure that there is appropriate road improvement to accommodate the additional traffic and congestion on the roads.”

Education

Setzer was recently endorsed by the Stafford Education Association political action committee for her advocacy for education progression. She says she has learned that the school board’s budget has not been adequately funded by the board of supervisors in recent years.

“In order to fund the schools more adequately, I think one of the things that needs to be done is controlling development and making sure it’s done in a smart and proper fashion,” she says. Additionally, Setzer says that overpopulated classrooms and teacher salaries need to be addressed.

“Too many schools are either at or above capacity. School construction needs to be more timely. We have some overcrowding in our schools and they are starting to use trailers,” she says.  “I also think the salaries need to be increased. We are overdue more than a lot of other locations for these increases and there’s been discussion about teachers looking for positions with schools that pay more adequate salaries.”

Employment

Setzer says she would also work to promote employment opportunities and economic development within Stafford County.

“We need to ensure that whatever development is being proposed will also be a supplement to help improve the employment sector for the area,” she says. “Some nonprofit organizations have not been funded adequately as they should have in recent years and I think we need to support critical nonprofit organizations, which will increase employment opportunity in the area.”

Voters will head to the polls Nov. 5 for the local election.