Russell Wants Growth, Rural Preservation, hand in hand
ST. MARY'S TODAY
ST. GEORGE'S ISLAND --- The son of the soil, waterman par excellence,
environmentalist, teacher and a face of the local communities, Jack Russell
was jubilant over the trust people reposed in him in the Democratic
primaries, but adds a long road still lies ahead until D-Day, the general
elections.
Russell sprung a surprise, when he beat two solidly
placed local businessmen Mike Hewitt and Merl Evans in the democratic
primaries.
"We had a convincing win," Russell told ST. MARY'S
TODAY on Wednesday evening. "We have been politicking for 13 months. Now
that we have got the initial step taken care of we are going to move on to
victory in November," he added
It was somewhere around 9:30, Russell said, he and his
supporters knew they have a sizable lead, but didn't really know he had won
until as late as 11 O' clock. They were at the Eddie Bailey's Old Breton
Inn, that's where he got the returns from.
Russell said the victory would not make him
overconfident. "The priority in my mind is taking nothing for granted. We
have got seven weeks for the general elections." He said he was fortunate
to have a committed group of people dedicated to reaching out to the
community.
"We will go back to work next week and try to go to
victory in November," Russell said.
Russell made it clear he does not have an anti-growth
agenda, but wants to manage growth in a way it would help preserve the rural
character of St. Mary's County.
"We have got to have growth," Russell said, adding
communities that do not have growth face decay. He said, "We need to
control growth. We need to direct it and manage it a little better than we
have done in the past."
Russell said, "It behooves all of our community to try
and retain some of our rural character. That's what brought us here in the
first place."
He said this goal of rural preservation was not
mission impossible.
"In short term we need to look at concept plans for
our town centers and development districts," he said. "We have got to look
at the whole picture and see if the road map we have is sending us into the
right direction."
In other words, he said he believed trying to send the
development into these town centers and development districts versus the
rural preservation district.
He said, "I think we need to study the whole picture
of our infrastructure, our roads. Short-term that's what we need to do."
He said by raising the density in development
districts, the open spaces that the community absolutely needs to preserve
would remain untouched. "In other words we can bring the price of some lots
down in the development district and make it appealing at the same time,"
Russell, whose heart beats with the community said.
The election of Russell in November might end the
bitter acrimony between the county and state legislators that had become the
hallmark of the presidency of Tommy McKay (R. Hollywood), analysts believe.
Russell said people of St. Mary's want an open and
transparent administration. "They want to ensure they have been listened.
They want us to put community first and they want to feel they haven't been
left behind in county government."
Russell said strengthening ties with Pax River and at
the same time affording opportunities to small business people would be
among his top priorities.
"I am a team player. We have got five county
commissioners. I am going to stress team work, open information. I want to
have a happy work place," Russell said
