The Courage to Begin

My first week as an official mayoral candidate.

One of my childhood homes was in Arlington Park. We lived across the street from Robert Pritchard, the founder of Pritchard Electric. When my mother was the CEO of Hospice of Huntington, she was considering whether to commit to building a $6.6 million facility to provide end-of-life care in a homelike setting for patients with terminal illnesses. Hospice didn’t have the money, and Mom didn’t know where it would come from, so she asked Mr. Pritchard, a respected business leader, for his opinion. His response was, “You will succeed if you have the courage to begin.” With that spark of encouragement, the Hospice House was built in Highlawn and proudly serves the Tri-State area today.

My first week as an official mayoral candidate wasn’t nearly as daunting as my mother’s decision, but it made me think about her journey, Mr. Pritchard's advice, and the courage to begin. 

Here is a brief recap of things I did to begin this new year.

• Filed my official mayoral candidacy paperwork at City Hall (see picture) and submitted my first financial report. In the fourth quarter, we raised $120,511.

• Met with a dozen people or so at a neighbor’s house to discuss why this is a critical point in time for the city and how they could help by finding and supporting good candidates in local elections. I also attended a Southside neighborhood association meeting that focused on law enforcement concerns and how the construction of a new Cabell County EMS station on 8th Avenue will contribute to cleaning up the street.

• Interacted with officials from Marshall University throughout the week to gain a better understanding of the real impact of LG's $700M announcement (hopefully a branch office in Huntington), to receive an update on student enrollment (still strong), and to discuss plans for the baseball stadium’s inaugural weekend starting on March 1st (our opponent, the Manhattan Jaspers, are named after Brother Jasper, who is often credited with introducing the 7th-inning stretch). I also toured the new business school (classes start there next week, and it is amazing!).

• Met with developers and landlords to understand what it would take for them to invest more in Huntington. They say with high material costs and a scarcity of workers, issues like crime, drugs, and homelessness are discouraging private investors from operating neighborhood grocery stores, building new housing, and renovating existing rental units.

• Collaborated with a local pastor to identify strategies to help members of his congregation overcome barriers to employment. Specifically, we discussed an employer’s perspective on hiring people with past criminal records and drug-related offenses, and we explored where to draw the line in terms of giving someone a second chance. 

There's more to share, but I want to limit my regular updates to you to just a handful of concise bullets that are on point with what I think you want to know. Thanks for reading, if you want to support my campaign, please encourage a friend or family member to sign up for my newsletter and follow me on social media. Together we can make a difference!