by Kathleen N. Lohr, PhD, Chapel Hill

I am writing to express my strong support and appreciation for three candidates in Chatham County for county commissioner positions. Michael Dasher brings experience and a deep understanding of the needs of a growing, but still increasingly youthful, population in our county. He offers, as well, a more sophisticated sense of what our county will need to grapple with in the coming months and years than Mr. Pharr is going to be able to muster. 

Similarly, Karen Howard, the incumbent Board of Commissioners chair, offers well more than a decade of efforts to guide development, education, and similar “commissioners’” concerns for the county. Hers is thus highly valuable expertise and clarity on numerous issues of concern across the area – an advantage over the opaqueness of Mr. Stobbs’ views. 

Finally, I want to underscore the importance, to the county, of the hard-working Hispanic community in Chatham, but especially in and around Siler City. The proportion of the countywide population that belongs to this group is growing, but their interests and concerns may receive less attention than is warranted or needed. Thus, Franklin Gomez Flores, running for a Commissioner seat as an independent, will be able to articulate and act on matters critical to this important part of our countywide population in ways that Mr. Wilkie cannot or will not.

Thank you for your continuing coverage of the county-wide (and state and national) elections in these difficult times. We all need to pay close attention to all these campaigns and candidates as we consider how best to serve Chatham County in the years to come.