William C. “Billy” Withers is running unopposed for the Ward 2 City Council seat in the Tuesday, May 6, 2014, Fredericksburg General Election. George Solley currently holds the seat. His term expires June 30, 2014, and he is not running for reelection.
Each candidate was invited to answer the same three questions from Fredericksburg.Today. Answers from Billy Withers follow.
1 – What is your educational background? Degrees earned and from where?
AA degree from Strayer Jr. College of Finance Washington D.C. 1966 Various other Appraisal and Economic classes
2 – What is your current occupation?
Retired
3 – What do you believe are the two or three most important issues currently facing Fredericksburg and how do you propose solving them? It’s best to keep your response to a maximum of 600 words for online reading.
Future development and redevelopment in the city and the City’s continuing healthy financial status. The city needs to ensure that development and redevelopment will be good in the long term. Development in the historic area should to be done in such a way that it enhances existing businesses. We need to ensure that our older downtown buildings are maintained in such a way that this will be a continuing asset to the city. Fredericksburg (as well as surrounding counties) have a wealth of historic sites. While tourism traffic is good, I believe it could be better. I support reasonable incentives for new development that draws new businesses and not those that simply give money to projects that are underway. I would hope that the proposed baseball complex is workable project to help build out Celebrate Virginia South which could be a big plus to the city’s income base. I would however like to see numbers on how city incentives will be repaid by benefits that are forecast as well as the expenses that the city will incur due to the project. I am hopeful that the numbers work as the build out of Celebrate Va. is important for our financial health.
Editor’s Note: All answers appear unedited. Answers from the other candidates are available at Fredericksburg General Election 2014.
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