Supervisors race takes shape

Ruckersville District's Jeri Allen, an eight-year veteran of the Board of Supervisors, will not seek re-election in November. Allen made her announcement Tuesday, April 28, during the Board's regularly scheduled meeting.
"This is a bittersweet moment for me, (but) it's time for someone who has fewer grandchildren and a smaller garden than I do to sit up here," Allen said. "I'll miss it … I've enjoyed it, and it is bittersweet."
Shortly after Allen made her announcement, Stanardsville District representative and Board Vice-chair Buggs Peyton told The Record that he plans to run for another four-year term this fall. Both the Stanardsville and Ruckersville seats are up for re-election.
Peyton says he wants to continue serving because he is the "only Greene County native on the Board of Supervisors" and "clearly understands the expectations of long-term citizens."
For now, at least one person says he is considering a run for the Stanardsville seat as well.
Greene County Planning Commission member and local realtor Bill Martin says that he was approached by "several Stanardsville residents who asked me to run." Among the issues they raised: "the lack of attention directed to the many social and economic issues facing the Town of Stanardsville."
As for the Ruckersville District seat, Jim Frydl, chairman of the local planning commission, says he plans to run.
At press time Tuesday, Frydl had no known competition for Allen's seat.

While making her departure announcement last week, Allen summed up her feelings: "I'm very proud to have been on the Board that got rid of millions of dollars of short-term borrowing (and)… that built the addition to the middle school and the high school. (I'm) prouder still that I was on the Board that opened the door for serious economic development (by enabling) water storage in Ruckersville and a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant, which will last us for a long, long, long time."
Allen was elected to the Board in November 2001 by a 705-to-518 margin over Calvin Biesecker. In 2005, she held on to her seat by a close 763-to-707 margin over challenger Joanne Burkholder.
Peyton joined Allen and others on the five-member board in 2005, following a defeat over incumbent Kevin Welch, by a margin of 944 votes to 518. The former customer relations manager served on the Board in the late 1980s, prior to his retirement from Sprint in 2000.
In 2005, Peyton says he ran for the Board again at the urging of county residents. Since then, he explains, "the responsibilities of local government have changed dramatically."
He says he sees the local Board as the last line of defense against state and federal unfunded mandates, as well as tax-and-spend attitudes.
Peyton also wants to protect land rights, "especially (in the face of) eminent domain, when the … government wants to take people's property to make a fast buck." He is against continued residential growth, which he says "will force property assessments upward, thereby increasing property taxes.
And he says he wants to continue working to do the following: supplement the county's water supply via wells while searching for a water impoundment or reservoir site, encourage economic development for revenues and to have decent shopping in Greene, and continue interaction between supervisors and school board members.
Martin has owned property and been a taxpayer in the county since 1992; he took up residence in Greene in 2006. He served as a Foreign Service officer with the United States Agency for International Development. Now that he is retired, Martin sells real estate for Charlottesville Country Properties and is on the local Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors.
As a planning commission member, Martin has taken Virginia certified planning courses and says he follows the guidelines laid down in the county's Comprehensive Plan when voting on recommendations to be made to supervisors.
Martin predicts that his platform may change somewhat as he listens to the views of more citizens, but for now, the issues most important to him are the following: tax levies that make sense; smart growth for jobs and revenue; keeping Greene green; and, revitalizing the Town of Stanardsville.
Martin said high on the list of concerns voiced by Stanardsville citizens "was a failure to understand how Greene County's 2009 property tax assessments could be so skewed in one direction in these hard economic times, particularly when Albemarle County's assessments were basically flat." Martin continued: "Many folks simply don't understand the explanations provided and believe the county must do better for its residents."
Both Martin and Frydl were appointed to the Greene County Planning Commission in 2008.
Frydl, who wishes to fill Allen's seat, sells groundwater remediation systems for Mid-Atlantic Environmental Equipment, Inc. The 17-year county resident refers to the fact that between 1990 and July 2005, Greene experienced an estimated population growth of 64.9 percent. "I was here at the beginning of the great spurt," he says.
In that time, Frydl notes, it's been hard "transitioning from a county with very little growth to a county with high growth." He says that the county government has learned to do more than just react to issues and has "come a long way in anticipating and planning for growth."
That growth must be balanced, he adds, and the county needs to make sure it "treats businesses fairly so they stay here and create jobs." Moreover, "I want to make sure that we are fair and balanced for all citizens; those who have been here for generations, those who have moved in more recently, (as well as for) our corporate residents," he says.
Frydl claims no specific agenda: "I look at a situation and the laws and rules that apply and do what makes the most sense for the entire county."
Frydl - who, like Martin, has taken Virginia certified planning courses -- says his experience on the local planning commission will benefit him as a supervisor.
None of the candidates have officially filed paperwork with the Registrar's Office. The deadline to do so is June 9.
Only the Ruckersville District and Stanardsville District seats on the Board are open to the electoral process this year. Another two years remains on the terms of the supervisors who currently occupy the one Monroe District (Mike Skeens) and two At-Large seats (Steve Catalano and Carl Schmitt).
All supervisors are elected to four-year terms. They are compensated by the county in the following amounts: the chairman is paid $10,477; the vice-chairman $9,701; and, the remaining three members $9,313 each.