Candidates for the Town of Indian Trail Mayor answered questions from WFAE about why they should be elected (or reelected).
DAVID COHN (INCUMBENT)
Occupation:
I am not only the mayor of our great town of Indian Trail, I am also a Regional Sales Manager for a large meat company with over 25 years of experience selling to Food Distributors and their customers.
Political experience and/or advocacy groups you are affiliated with:
I have been in local government for almost 12 years. I ran for a seat on Town Council in 2011 and 2015 and won both times with the most votes received. After serving 8 years as Mayor Pro Tem, I intended to retire from council, however, after the sudden and tragic passing of Councilwoman Shirley Howe, one of my dearest friends, I was honored to accept council's request to fulfill the remainder of her term. Our town then lost our mayor, Michael Alvarez and I was asked again by council to complete his term. It was a great honor to be asked and appointed a second time.
Does your city/town get adequate resources from the Charlotte Area Transit System considering the countywide half-cent sales tax that helps fund it? If not, do you think your town would be better served keeping the money to create its own transit solution?
Union County does not receive the half cent sales tax. However, Indian Trail agreed to keep the bus service coming to our town by contributing $18,000 to fund the CATS 74 Express Bus.
In its role on the Metropolitan Transit Commission, does the city of Charlotte (54% voting power) listen to the needs of surrounding towns?
Indian Trail is a nonvoting member, but we are allowed to be a part of the commission to stay involved.
What is the biggest quality-of-life issue facing residents of your city/town and how will you address it?
Traffic. The council has devoted approximately 41 million dollars for several main roads in our town. Indian Trail is currently working on Chestnut Parkway, Indian Trail Road Phase 1 and 2, Navaho Road and Shady Bluff. Many of the roads are State DOT roads, such as Monroe Road and Hwy. 74. As mayor, I work with the council to stay in constant contact with DOT to improve traffic.
What should your city/town do to address climate change?
As mayor, I have worked on and implemented several ways our town can work together to help address problems that contribute to climate change. Littering is one problem that is not just an unattractive sight to see on our roads, it causes pollution and spreads germs and bacteria into our community. I volunteer with Keep IT Beautiful; a litter pick up and prevention program that organizes volunteers to join our town staff in Sweeps on designated roads. I talk about this and other concerns at Coffee with the Mayor. This is a town hall-style meeting where residents can come to ask questions and address their concerns to the town manager and myself.
EV charging stations are a way to produce fewer emissions. I am the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization Representative for Indian Trail. While working with the town and CRTPO, we received a grant that is expected this October for over $500,000 to install EV charging stations at our parks. The town is responsible for 20 percent of total cost of the project. The NCDOT has said the number of electric vehicles has increased over 54 percent across the state with more than 50,000 on our roadways. Once the funding is received, we can start installing the charging stations.
We are always looking for ways to keep our town a beautiful place to live.
What is your top priority if elected?
My top priority is to keep our town safe by supporting our Union County Sheriff's Department. Our officers provide the community with superior protection. The people of Indian Trail feel safe. The cost is far less than the establishment of a local police department. It is one of the main reasons our taxes stay low.
I also want to keep working to improve the roads of our town. We have a 5 year plan with an estimated cost of 16 million dollars to repave our existing roads.
I want to continue to work with our Parks and Recreation Department to maintain the beautiful parks that I am proud to have in our town. There are talks about building a community center for people of all ages. I want to continue to be a part of improving our residents' lives. I want Indian Trail to remain a place where residents can live, work and play.
Occupation:
IBM Software Product Manager - Retired after 25 consecutive years with IBM. I worked in IT my whole career after graduating from UNC-Charlotte with a computer science degree. I traveled extensively during my career with the opportunity to visit all 48 lower states and much of Canada on business, pleasure, or both. I enjoyed international business travel including: England, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Australia, Poland and Singapore. Having seen our country and many others I have a good sense of what other cities and towns have done right and wrong.
Political experience and/or advocacy groups you are affiliated with:
As a 29 year resident of Indian Trail I proudly served 4 years on the Indian Trail town council from December 2005 to December 2009. During those 4 years I drove many positive reforms toward more efficient, open, and transparent local government. We worked hard to put the citizens back into the driver’s seat. Sadly many of the reforms we put into place have eroded in the years since then and need to be put back into place. Please visit, Like, and Follow my campaign Facebook page 'Elect Dan Schallenkamp' for more details.
Does your city/town get adequate resources from the Charlotte Area Transit System considering the countywide half-cent sales tax that helps fund it? If not, do you think your town would be better served keeping the money to create its own transit solution?
(Note: I believe only Mecklenburg has the half-cent sales tax for transit. Union County does not therefore that part of the question does not apply to Indian Trail.) Earlier this summer Indian Trail contributed $18,000 to help Union County fund the continuation of CATS 74X Express service with a stop in Indian Trail. This was the right thing to do in order to keep this valuable transit service as an option for citizens who need to travel to Matthews or Charlotte. As Indian Trail grows we must consider additional public transit options and opportunities.
In its role on the Metropolitan Transit Commission, does the city of Charlotte (54% voting power) listen to the needs of surrounding towns?
(Note: Another question that pertains mainly to Mecklenburg county rather than Union). Indian Trail and other Union County towns are non-voting regional participants the MTC. It is very important for Indian Trail to be engaged in the MTC however our influence is limited at best given that we do not have a vote.
What is the biggest quality-of-life issue facing residents of your city/town and how will you address it?
Traffic, school overcrowding and public safety are the biggest quality-of-life issues facing Indian Trail residents. There are several very exciting road projects that will begin to break ground in the next 1 to 3 years. This will bring some much needed traffic relief in a few areas (Monroe Road, Indian Trail Road, Chestnut Parkway extension, etc.). However, by the time these projects are complete, if we continue to allow unmanaged, uncontrolled growth, our roads will never be adequate and school overcrowding will be a continual issue. We must plan our future growth in a way that strives for a balance between property rights, small town feel and quality-of-life. With regard to public safety, I will not compromise on public safety. I will ask the town council to constantly review crime statistics and listen closely to the experts and professionals in law enforcement to us help ensure that we are always prepared for and stay ahead of crime. I strongly support our law enforcement contract with the Union County Sheriff's Office.
What should your city/town do to address climate change?
One of the best things we can do in Indian Trail is to make our town your first choice for shopping, entertainment, dining and work. Shorter car trips to shop and get services locally will go a long way to reducing road miles. As a bonus, every dollar spent in Union County allows more and more sales tax dollars to return to our county and to Indian Trail helping to lower our property tax burden. I would also like to see a much more walkable and bike friendly Indian Trail so many individuals can choose to leave the car at home for certain activities. Finally, I want to work with local businesses in partnership with Union County, the state and others to make sure there are ample EV charging stations throughout our town.
What is your top priority if elected?
Open and transparent local government is my top priority however, this priority is a tie with public safety. You really can not have one without the other. When I say open and transparent government I mean the following: 1) the mayor especially has the job of informing the public about the business of the town, genuine consensus building, inform the citizens of the hard choices when it comes to project costs and trade-offs, don’t simply ask ‘would you like to have XYZ?’ but also share the potential cost range of XYZ and how it may impact town savings and the town tax rate; 2) town council members who have all available information long before they are asked to vote, the information must be available at least a week or ten days prior to a vote so they have ample time to read, understand and ask questions during the meeting; 3) let voters weigh-in on large multi-million dollar expenses far in advance, it is their money, they may not always agree on how their money is spent however, they should be informed and provided with an opportunity to express their opinion on the matter.