Remakel eyeing long-term plans
The Washington County District 5 candidate said she loves everything about the city – its parks, trails, amenities, planning and safety of the community. “I’m running because I want to keep it that way,” she said.By: Riham Feshir, Woodbury Bulletin
Nancy Remakel has been a longtime resident of Woodbury. And she’s not going anywhere.
The Washington County District 5 candidate said she loves everything about the city – its parks, trails, amenities, planning and safety of the community.
“I’m running because I want to keep it that way,” she said.
If elected, the current Woodbury Planning Commission chairwoman would represent more constituents by serving on the District 5 seat that covers most of Woodbury.
She said the future holds demographic changes for the city with the senior population expected to double by the year 2030.
“I have vision. I can see the big picture,” Remakel said. “And I also have the experience.”
Remakel has served on the Woodbury City Council, the Parks and Recreation Commission, and on the R.H. Stafford Library Board.
And she’s passionate about keeping the library open seven days a week — not closing it for two days then re-opening it again.
“I just think that we needed to think that through better because we have now unemployed people and now we have to hire people back and retrain them,” she said.
To keep up with costs and demands for services, Remakel suggests another option.
“I think for this year, the County Board should have just raised the taxes and then spent this year working out a plan as to how they can keep the libraries open in the future,” she said.
She added that county officials were on a time crunch when the decision was made, so her solution would’ve been to give staff more time to work out the budget for the year while offsetting the costs with tax dollars.
“I believe that for that one year they could’ve filled in that amount of money, whatever it took, to keep those doors open,” Remakel said.
She also said the county needs to do more long-term planning and implement a new strategic plan, one that focuses on economic development and job creation that would help maintain a low tax rate by spreading out the tax base.
Another thing she wants to stress is making sure county commissioners are policymakers, while leaving the administrative work to those hired by county officials.
Remakel added that partnerships between county staff and staff from cities within Washington County will help brand the county and emphasize its positive image and amenities it provides.
“We need to always have some common sense thrown in,” she said.
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