Who is Nick Walsh, Huntersville Board of Commissioners candidate?
Name: Nick Walsh
Age: 65
Campaign website or social media page: votenickwalsh.com
Occupation: Retired
Education: St Petersburg College
Have you run for elected office before? (Please list previous offices sought):
Huntersville Town Commissioner 2017 & 2019
Please list your highlights of civic involvement.
Served on the President of the Wynfield HOA Board / Volunteer at the Huntersville Police Department
What one professional or political accomplishment are you most proud of?
Non-motorized transportation is a critical part of our infrastructure.
When I was first elected, the Greenways, Trails, and Bikeway Commission did not have a Town Board Member assigned to them. In speaking to the mayor at that time, I volunteered to add that to my other assignments.
In the four years that I served with these dedicated volunteers of the commission, we accomplished so much! We launched The Vine (the new name of our greenway system). The town built a new trail head for The Vine in our downtown. The commission created a 30 x 30 Plan which envisions connecting 30,000 residents of Huntersville to The Vine by 2030. We are on pace to make that happen!
I worked with Elaine Powel, our District 1 Mecklenburg County Representative to get funding for an additional 6 ½ miles of new greenways. These additional miles will extend Huntersville both east and west with a link to the greenway tunnel already built under I-77. Within 4 years, The Vine will grow by 14 miles to a total of 17 miles.
Traffic is an issue in Huntersville while a few critical road projects, such as the widening of N.C. 73, have been delayed by NCDOT. How would you tackle the town’s traffic problem?
Most roads in Huntersville are part of the NCDOT system. As such, we have limited influence on how and or when they will be modified. The town typically has control over neighborhood streets.
That said, our hands our not tied even though we have limited resources. During my time on the board, we directed the town manager to get project shovel ready. That meant, instead of the aimless shifting around road projects, we moved them forward. The idea was to get some of the engineering done while waiting for funding sources.
During my time on the board, we funded several local road projects. We also teamed up with NCDOT to advance projects. The Gilead Road west project is an example. We not only contributed financially but we will also manage the project.
What are your ideas about how the town should recruit and retain more police officers specifically? And all town employees more broadly?
One Town One Team!
PAY PAY PAY
(reduce needless turnover)
Ok, not completely. Studies will tell you that pay is not the main reason employees are retained. Huntersville boarders Charlotte and is in Mecklenburg County. To suggest that we are competing for employees from anywhere else is well, naïve. We have to keep up with our big sister to the south!
The current Town Board killed off a$14M Town Hall project (much needed) and has now approved a Town Hall that will cost taxpayers north of $40M (complete waste of money). This is all done in a budget year that the town manager did not actually ask for a raise for employees. He asked for an 8% COLA adjustment just to keep our most valuable resource (town employees) just even with inflation. The current town board only approved a 4% COLA and 2% Merit. So basically, all town employees took a 2% pay cut.
What’s more important?
Huntersville has experienced rapid population growth over the last few decades with the approval of hundreds of new homes. Do you think the town should control growth in some way or keep expanding? Why?
I don’t believe this question is totally fair. Without getting into the sodalities of state law, we can’t acutely control growth but we have legislative options for managing growth (a community plan).
It is estimated that by 2040, 700,000 people will move to the Charlotte region (roughly 120 per day). Huntersville which has a residential population of about 70k is expected to be (with current zoning) between 100k-125k at full build out.
The Huntersville 2040 Community Plan is a blueprint for growth within our boarders. It has been said by some that this plan is a guideline. One does not build a house based upon a guideline. Residence of our community should be holding their commissioners responsible for adhering to that plan and not going rouge.
Why should voters choose you over others who are in the race?
It’s really up to you as an individual voter.
Look at my record during the 4 years I served. I was proud to vote consistently with our Community Plan, support our employees, and bring positive change to Huntersville.
My next big idea that I pinched to past boards is to bring governing closer to you. Do you know who your local commissioner is? Of course not, there is not one. We have been operating town government like it was 100 years ago when Huntersville was 1 square mile and all were elected at large.
Huntersville is 63 square miles. Time to catch up with other municipalities our size (and many smaller). I advocated in the past to break representation for Huntersville into 4 geographic districts with 2 at-large. Every homeowners association or constituent should have a local elected on speed dial!
Vision!
