In my mind, there is only one candidate for County Council, District 1, that has the breadth of experience, the collaboration skills, and the commitment to our entire community required to lead us through the inevitable future challenges.

Lovel Pratt will receive my vote and I am asking for yours, too.

We face huge challenges — challenges that her opponent’s single-minded rhetoric for a smaller government will not solve. We need someone with compassion, wisdom, and a strong voice to guide us.

Lovel’s experience as a planning commissioner, Home Trust director, and very active community volunteer (firefighting, schools, Farmers Market) gives her a unique sense of our community’s needs and goals. She understands and appreciates ALL parts of our community: the business owners, the parents, the farmers, and the retired. These groups often have conflicting ambitions but Lovel has a collaborative style that engages all parties, listens with care, builds on her own research, then respectfully presents and explains her views.

Her position on the proposed relocation of the transfer station is most illustrative. One proposed site, off Beaverton Valley Road, is near my home and the issue therefore affects me greatly. Gordy, on the one hand, is adamantly opposed to moving the transfer station. I appreciate this and his position benefits me personally. However, standing above the NIMBY attitude and thinking more of our entire community, I much more appreciate Lovel’s evolution to a position.

Regarding this transfer station, she says, “I think it is wrong to pre-judge a decision before all the information has been provided, before the public has had an opportunity to have their concerns addressed, and before recommendations from the citizen advisory group and county staff have been heard.”

Lovel puts as much weight on the decision-making process as on the result and I strongly believe this is intellectually more honest and leads to a better community.

We will face many challenges in the next few years. Our goal should be to emerge stronger with a less divisive community. Only Lovel can take us there.

Larry Wight
Lampard Road
District 1