A Candidate’s Forum was held Thursday, October 8th, for those residents seeking to serve on the Caswell County Board of Commissioners. The virtual forum was co-hosted by the Caswell County Chamber of Commerce, the Caswell County Partnership for Children, Piedmont Community College, and the Caswell Chapter of The Health Collaborative.

The forum was moderated by four Caswell students:

• Marcellus Abbott (Bartlett Yancey High School)
• Treya Burnette (Bartlett Yancey High School)
• Immanuel Martin (Piedmont Community College)
• Kelsey Simpson (East Carolina University)

The Board of Commissioners has four seats on the ballot – two sitting commissioners are each running unopposed in their districts – Nate Hall in District 4 and Jeremiah Jefferies in District 3.

That leaves four candidates running for the board’s two at-large seats – John Dickerson, Crystal King, Rick McVey, and Kent Williamson.

**When viewing, skip to the 25-minute mark for the official 9am start.**

View a recording of the forum HERE to hear how each candidate responds to the following questions. Candidate contact information and additional resources are also available below.

Candidates were given 2 minutes to respond to each of the following:

1. What action do you believe an individual County Commissioner, and the full board, can take to expand high speed internet access here in Caswell County?
2. We have learned that zoning can be as simple or as complex as the land use tables that are adopted as part of the process. In general, how do you believe zoning may benefit, or harm the county?
3. What action do you believe an individual County Commissioner, and the full board, can take to support and promote Caswell’s Economic Development?
4. County government has a responsibility to provide certain services to its residents despite having a small tax base. What tactics do you believe would be helpful to ensure that services are provided without increasing property taxes, or are property tax increases inevitable?
5. What actions or concerns should the Commissioners be considering as part of the county’s pandemic response?

Candidates were also asked the following Rapid Fire YES or NO questions:

1. Should Board of Commissioners’ meeting agendas and full packets be posted publicly, ahead of the meeting?
2. Would you consider relocating ALL monuments off Court Square?
3. Do individual Commissioners have a responsibility to keep their constituents informed?
4. Do you believe that people living in Caswell County are impacted by systemic racism?
5. Should individual Commissioners get involved in personnel decisions regarding departmental staff?

Those interested in learning more about the future of the former Drug Store building, soon to operate as CoSquare, are invited to click HERE. 

For more information about the conversations had, and decisions made, by the current and previous boards, you can find minutes from the Board of Commissioner meetings HERE.

You can learn more about the basics of North Carolina county government HERE and can review the local policies and procedures that guide Caswell’s Board of Commissioners HERE.

Community members are also encouraged to learn more HERE about Citizen Participation through various other county board and committees.

Immediately following the forum, those commissioner candidates in attendance offered the following as preferred means of contact for community members who wished to follow up:

• John Dickerson – on Facebook, Jopack[email protected]
• Nate Hall – (336) 932-5240,  [email protected]
• Crystal King – on Facebook
• Rick McVey – (336) 214-2386
• Kent Williamson – (336) 212-2090

Voter registration ends October 9th and early voting begins Oct 15th. Learn more HERE.