|
Four file for office in Bethany Beach
Killmer, Fuller not seeking new terms this election
By M. Patricia Titus
News Editor
Bethany Beach will have at least two new town council members this September, with the decision by Council Members Lew Killmer and Wayne Fuller not to seek re-election. Four candidates — Joseph T. Healy Jr., Carol Olmstead, J. Robert Parsons and Margaret Bogan Young have filed for the three available council seats.
Killmer told the Coastal Point this week, just prior to the Tuesday deadline for candidates to file in the election, that he would forgo seeking another term on the council.
“The average citizen probably does not have any idea how much time and effort that a typical town council member dedicates to the community,” Killmer told the Coastal Point. “This year I feel that it is an excellent time for me to take a ‘break’ and allow others a chance to serve our community.”
While Killmer will have served on the council for 33 months as of his term’s expiration in September, he was never formally elected to a seat on the council.
Killmer, then chairman of the town’s Planning Commission, was chosen by the council from a pool of candidates to fill the unexpired term of former Mayor Joseph McHugh in January of 2005, when McHugh retired just over three months into his latest term. Vice-Mayor Jack Walsh took over the mayoral spot at that time.
When McHugh’s term expired in September of 2006, Killmer decided to seek re-election to a full two-year term of his own. But, in an election season fraught with citizen activism against a controversial architectural ordinance, Killmer’s involvement with the ordinance may have left him at a disadvantage.
Killmer and fellow incumbent Harold Steele were ousted, finishing fifth and sixth in the voting, with a single vote between them. That one vote turned out to be a significant one, as Mayor Jack Walsh, who had taken over the town’s executive spot when McHugh retired, himself unexpectedly resigned in the wake of council reorganization and the selection of then-Vice-Mayor Carol Olmstead as the town’s new mayor.
The remaining council members opted to select the next highest vote-getter in the just-completed election to fill Walsh’s uncompleted term, and Killmer was it, by virtue of that one vote.
Thus, for a second time, Killmer was appointed by the council to fill a vacant seat, leading him to those nearly three years of service to the town.
Killer reflected on his time in office this week, saying, “I feel that my colleagues and I during my two and a half years on town council have helped to ensure that the Town of Bethany Beach continues to be a wonderful place to live, vacation and conduct business.
“I would like to thank all of the people who have supported me and my efforts, as well as all of those individuals who took the time to share with the town council their ideas and concepts on how to make our town even better,” he added.
“I have truly enjoyed working on various committees and commissions, and I hope that the next town council will consider me when looking for potential candidates to fill future vacancies,” he concluded. “I wish the next town council the greatest success, and I plan to be in attendance at town council meetings actively supporting their efforts.”
Fuller takes a bow after 10 years of service to town
Also deciding not to run for re-election this year is veteran Council Member Wayne Fuller, who has served on the council for 10 years. He first joined the council in 1996 and served three terms, through September of 2002.
Fuller initially filed for re-election in 2002 but decided as the election neared that he would not run after all. At that time, he cited his heavy involvement with work at the Bethany Beach Christian Church and the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company, where he has served among the fire police in recent years.
After a year off from the council, however, Fuller filed for election again in 2003, successfully regaining a seat with 509 votes. He retained his seat through in 2005, when no non-incumbents filed and no elections were held.
Fuller, until September of 2005, chaired the town’s Charter and Ordinance Review Committee, which is responsible for examining town code for updates and investigating the drafting of new legislation. He turned those duties over to Killmer in 2005. Vice-Mayor Tony McClenny has since taken over CORC’s leadership.
Prior to joining the council, Fuller served on the Bethany Beach Planning Commission for six years, with two years spent as its chairman. He was also vice-mayor of the town during his time on the council and headed the Lifeguard Building Committee that oversaw the construction of the new lifeguard station on Garfield Parkway.
Health issues sidelined Fuller for some of 2006 and 2007, but he has continued to serve on several town committees and as a voice of local fire and safety agencies within town government, as well as in a liaison role with the Bethany Beach Christian Church
Olmstead files for re-election
Though she had said as recently as July 20 that she hadn’t decided for sure whether or not she would be running for re-election this year, Olmstead did end up filing her candidacy papers prior to the Tuesday deadline.
In discussing her decision process on Friday, Olmstead echoed Killmer’s concerns, saying, “People don’t realize how much work is involved in serving on the council.”
Olmstead finished second in the voting held in September of 2003, with 543 votes, and as a result took a seat on the council for the first time. There were no elections held in 2005, when her first term expired.
She was selected as vice-mayor in January of 2005, with the resignation of McHugh, and she was selected as the town’s new mayor during council re-organization held after the September 2006 council elections, prompting the resignation of Walsh from the council.
If she is re-elected, this would be Olmstead’s third term on the council.
Parsons aims to rejoin council this go-around
Former mayor and council member, and current Board of Adjustments Chairman J. Robert “Bob” Parsons was another one of those who filed in the last week to run for council again this year. Parsons led the field in 2002, racking up 736 votes — more than 160 votes more than his closest rival. He lost his seat on the council in 2004 when he received 517 votes, narrowly edged by Bob Degen’s 525 votes.
Parsons has led the town’s Board of Adjustments ever since and has also remained heavily involved in the beach replenishment issue, with a role on the town’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee and serving as a liaison with the town’s replenishment lobbyists and federal officials.
He found himself in opposition to the current council earlier this year, in discussion of the makeup of the BoA. Some council members favored increasing the board’s membership to five members, even though that likely would have meant eliminating the ability for non-resident citizens to serve on the board, due to a limitation of state law.
And Parsons said that was one of the things that sparked him to try for a return to the council in 2007.
“I think that the council has devolved into a situation, though it’s not anyone’s fault, where committees are making decisions that perhaps council should make,” Parsons told the Coastal Point.
“It’s a good thing that we have the committees with citizen input,” he emphasized, but, “I wish that they would come with more than a recommendation, but a recommendation with pros and cons, and that council would have more discussion of particularly the big items, such as the budget, capital expenditures, staffing… those things.”
“I also want to make sure that the voting rights and the rights of participation of the non-residents are preserved,” Parsons noted. “And, as you know, there were suggestions by some council members that non-residents not be permitted to serve on the Board of Adjustments, and council wisely backed off on that. But it could have happened. It could have slipped by us and that would have been that.
“Any time we lose participation of the non-residents we lose a very valuable asset,” Parsons concluded.
While Parsons acknowledged being at odds with Killmer on several issues, including the BoA’s makeup, he said the outgoing councilman had not generated any personal opposition in him.
“He has served with the best of intentions,” Parsons said of Killmer. “And while I have disagreed with some of the things he has advocated, he wanted the best for the town, and I don’t have any heartache with him.”
Young to challenge for council seat
Also at odds with the council in the recent past has been resident Margaret Young, who has served as the secretary and primary spokesperson for the Bethany Beach Historical Association (BBHA), which operated the town museum under authority from the council starting in 1997, prior to its move to the town hall lobby and prior to the formation of the Cultural and Historical Affairs Committee (CHAC) in 2004.
Young has frequently clashed with Olmstead, who heads CHAC, over control of the museum, which the council formally placed with CHAC last May on Olmstead’s request. The mayor had cited confusion among the public about who was in charge of the museum. The council not only removed the BBHA as an operating authority of the museum at that time but also asked that funds held by the BBHA be turned over to the town for museum operations.
Young opposed the move. She also later raised concerns that the BBHA was appearing to be forcibly disbanded and replaced by CHAC. Olmstead denied that the Historical Association was being forced to disband, but she did recognize the change of hands taking place regarding the museum responsibilities.
Young told the Coastal Point this week that the notion of running for a council seat was something she had only seriously considered very recently.
“People have mentioned it to me over the past year,” Young explained, “and then I was seriously asked a little over a week ago, when [former Mayor] Joe McHugh asked to seriously consider it.
“Since then,” Young said, “I’ve talked to seven or eight people who either are on the council or are former members of the council, just to ask them their thoughts and experiences, their words of wisdom. And I spent two or three hours with some of them, or on the phone with them.”
Young, who is also the secretary of the Bethany Beach Women’s Civic Association, said that, in addition to the town museum, she is concerned about a number of issues regarding change in the town she once knew.
“One of those is preserving the family-oriented Bethany Beach,” she said. “I would like to investigate preserving the older homes.”
Young said a recent loss in the continuing trend of older homes being torn down to build larger, newer houses, had personally affected her, when “The Arc,” once at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and First Street, was torn down recently.
“We had rented that house a couple summers when I was a little girl. And about 25 years ago, Mrs. Caroline Halsey owned it, and my son worked for her, so I had a connection to that place. It’s gone now. And it seems like all the older houses that have a history, that have a story with them, are going one by one. I want to investigate ways of saving them.”
Young said she is also focused on safety concerns, particular with bicyclists and pedestrians. “Someone’s going to get killed, that’s my opinion,” she said.
And while crowding on the beach may be less of a problem once beach reconstruction slated for this fall is completed, Young said she remains concerned about crowding downtown, largely due to overdevelopment. “People tell me they don’t come to the entertainment on the boardwalk — especially on the weekends — because it’s too crowded,” she said. “I want to investigate how we handle the shuttles, because every new community advertises that they have one.”
Further, Young said she is concerned about the town’s finances, particularly whether its wants and needs are being prioritized correctly in a time of slower revenues.
“In view of what’s happened this year, with the doubling of the property tax, I think we should look into ways in which to maybe lessen expenses,” she said. “We can’t get into what seemed like an almost last-minute situation where we had to double the property tax. I don’t want this to happen again. Taxes may have to be raised again in the future, but not doubling them with very little notice. We need to look at saving a little money here and there.”
As reported in last week’s Coastal Point, the first person to file in this year’s council elections was Joseph Healy, who ran unsuccessfully last year as a part-time resident and garnered 311 votes.
Healy, a semi-retired certified public accountant, championed his financial and management experience, along with increasing retired time in Bethany Beach, as a major reason to consider his candidacy this year.
“I will try to do the best job that I can in this position of trust,” he said in a letter to the Coastal Point announcing his candidacy and describing his qualifications.
Healy currently serves on Bethany’s Budget and Finance Committee, and has been involved with a number of community and service organizations in his native Bethesda, Md., area, including Kiwanis Club, the Bethesda Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce (where he was treasurer and received a community service award), Boys and Girls Homes of Montgomery County and Catholic Charities of Washington.
In the contentious atmosphere of the 2006 election, eight candidates filed to run for four seats.
While any controversy in the town has largely been lower-key this year, the election of 2007 appears to promise at least some change for the Bethany Beach Town Council. Voters will have their chance to weight in on Saturday, Sept. 8, when polls will open at noon and close at 6 p.m.
Bethany Beach property owners who are listed on the town’s property tax list are not required to register to vote in town elections.
Residents of Bethany Beach who do not own property must register to vote at least 30 days prior to the election. Residents may register at town hall or request a mailed registration form by telephone, mail or by e-mail. The last day to register to vote in this year’s election is Aug. 9.
|
