By Ashley McLeod, Staff Writer
Sep 18, 2015, 17:27
The Colonial Heights City Council has one seat up for grabs following the hiring of Scott Davis as the Director of Planning and Community Development. Three candidates have come forward to try and take his place.
Candidate One: David Bucciarelli
Bucciarelli was born in raised in Hopewell, so he has been a part of the Tri-Cities community his entire life. He and his wife moved into Colonial Heights two years ago, where they are now starting their family with their first child due in November. When not with his family, Bucciarelli works at a local factory as part of the on-site safety committee.
“I have had an excellent track record of identifying dangers that could hurt people in an industrial environment,” Bucciarelli said.
As a part of his campaign, Bucciarelli says that if elected, there are a few changes he wants to put in place in order to unburden citizens of Colonial Heights. The removal of county stickers is a priority, which Bucciarelli has been actively coming before the current council about this issue. He also wants to implement a webcast of the meetings, so that there is more citizen access, especially for those who cannot attend.
The construction on Boulevard and Dupuy Avenue are hot topics in the city. According to Bucciarelli, the length of time and amount of money put into these two projects seems to be the result of poor planning.
“Throwing money at the problems does not always work. It is time to handle our budget and tax dollars more efficiently, so our property taxes can be reduced,” said Bucciarelli.
City officials, however, have noted that the Boulevard and Dupuy Avenue projects will nearly all be funded by state and federal sources, aside from the cost of relocating sewer and water lines.
Several other large projects have been proposed in the city, which include a $7 million emergency radio system and renovations to the high school science labs. In order to pay for these new expenditures, there has been talk of raising a cigarette tax or other new revenue streams. While Bucciarelli is on board for some of the expenditures, he also believes that more options should be explored which will better benefit the citizens.
As a part of his economic plan, Bucciarelli wants to give businesses an opportunity to sponsor playgrounds to raise money for upkeep.
“My plan will give the children new safe playground equipment, involve businesses with the community, and best of all, no tax increases,” said Bucciarelli.
Bucciarelli wants to review current laws and plans to try and work to make better decisions that will help the community prosper and to fix the problems the community is currently facing.
“I am running for City Council because I want to ensure a better place to live for my wife and child, as well as get more involved in the community. Colonial Heights needs improvement and my goal as your Councilman is to look out for the best interests of our citizens,” said Bucciarelli. “I am going to focus on the problems at hand as well as look to the future.”
Candidate Two: David Hoopsick
David Hoopsick came to the Tri-Cities area 31 years ago while he was working as a contractor in the Richmond area. After that, he never left. He brought his wife to Colonial Heights, where they got married and began their own family.
His children are now grown, his son David, 27, is married and has one son, David Paul III, and his second son, Tommy, 22, owns his own air duct cleaning franchise.
Hoopsick became interested in the City Council when Colonial Heights decided to move forward on the Dupuy Avenue modernization program. As a resident on Dupuy Avenue, naturally, this project concerned Hoopsick.
“We started going to City Council meetings to find out what was going on and immediately I realized that they don’t even look at these projects to see how they will affect the residents,” said Hoopsick.
The Dupuy Avenue Project, according to Hoopsick, would create a bottleneck of traffic coming from the college, which will cause more problems than are already being had.
Hoopsick said he realized soon after that, some council members had not visited the site where the project was located. He also noticed that of the current council members, most of them had little experience or background with construction, which he thought was important to have on the council. Since then, he’s attended City Council meetings regularly.
With his background in construction and building, Hoopsick believes that this will greatly help the council when it comes to deciding on projects and how they will affect the citizens surrounding them. He also believes this knowledge needs to come first before any decision on any project is made.
“After they agree on doing the project and accept the project the way it is, then they talk to the citizens. To me, I think these are things that you need to get with the people earlier and discuss these issues rather than approve the plan and then have to change what you approve,” said Hoopsick.
The big concern for Hoopsick is how code enforcement is handled in the city, which he believes is having a negative impact on the city, especially towards a lack of economic development. The planning department, according to Hoopsick, has become a code enforcement department, which in return has left the economic development of the city on the back burner.
“We are not getting young couples in our city, and one of the big reasons is we have a lack of economic development. All the businesses we have in our city are retail, retail, retail. And we’re not getting good high paying jobs in the city and I think the problem is we have no focus in doing that. It’s not they don’t exist, it just that there’s no foresight to try and bring those to the city, instead of our planning department looking at that, we’re looking at enforcing codes that we have,” said Hoopsick.
The importance of bringing better jobs to the area is a big concern of Hoopsick. While he agrees that the Kroger project will bring jobs, he believes there is a lack of effort to find other businesses with higher-paying jobs for the citizens of the city and to attract more people to move to Colonial Heights.
“As I’ve walked around the city, there’s a lot of concerns the citizens have, and a lot of it is the code enforcement. Also, a lot of it has to do with the lack of jobs in the city and better-paying jobs, and that is my focus. To see how we can bring better-paying jobs to the city,” said Hoopsick.
Candidate Three: Betsy Luck
Betsy Luck, a former city council member, has come back to run for the open seat following her retirement from teaching.
A life-long Colonial Heights resident, Luck spent 35 years teaching. She has an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Barton College and a Masters in Curriculum and Development from Averett University.
Luck served on the Colonial Heights School Board from 1993 until 1998, serving as chairman from 1996 to 1998. In 2000, Luck was elected to the City Council and served until 2012, acting as vice mayor for the last four years of her time on the council. She left the City Council in order to be more focused on her teaching, but is now retired and wants to return to City Council.
“I have always loved this city. I have served on many committees and been involved in some way throughout my life. I decided to throw my hat in the ring because I have more time to devote to City Council now that I am retired,” said Luck.
The lack of participation in council meetings also is important to Luck. She wants to find ways for citizens to become more involved and become more informed.
Luck has also been involved with the Boulevard beautification projects, which she believes were worth the wait. Following studies from VDOT, she also believes that the placement of a roundabout at the I-95 exit will make the intersection much safer than before.
“VDOT has done multiple studies and has statistics supporting the success of roundabouts. No one likes change, but we have to be willing to try new approaches, especially when they have proven to be successful in other localities,” said Luck.
The Temple Avenue roundabout project is being handled by VDOT, not the city, however. The city can only make recommendations.
Funding for other capital improvement projects in the city is decided by the City Council. And Luck believes that while it is a difficult decision, it needs to be decided on fairly and with as much citizen input as possible. She hopes that the increase in recent economic indicators will allow for the funding of capital improvements, without having to raise any taxes for the citizens.
Luck believes her previous experience as a council member makes her the best candidate for the open seat on the council and says her goal is to serve the community and make decisions for the community based on her experience and common sense.
