Susan Parker is running to represent District 4 in the Chautauqua County Legislature in a June 22 Democratic Primary. She is the kind of candidate we need. I spoke with her recently, and asked her what she would bring to the job?

The job of a county legislator is to adopt resolutions and policies taking into consideration the County Comprehensive Plan. In addition to that, the legislature approves county labor contracts, makes appropriations, incurs indebtedness, and adopts budgets as part of the Chautauqua County charter.

The County Legislature works with the county executive to adopt and extend resolutions, policies, contracts, and appointments of county employees while working within legal and budgetary constraints. In other words, the legislator is one of nineteen representatives in the full legislature who works to keep the county running, while planning for the future.

“As a county legislator’s primary responsibility is to establish and adopt policies, I would bring skills to perform my primary duties to the county,” she said. “As a District 4 legislator, I would also bring a willingness to work hard for the community and collaboratively with local officials on projects that would benefit District 4 including Fredonia. My goal is to bring fairness for people and in policies, transparency in decisions, and courage to act on my constituents’ behalf. I would also bring a belief that listening to the residents of your district is an essential part of the job. Once you do this, you find a community full of ideas and people who are willing to contribute to their community.”

Parker learned this recently when she posted a community cleanup of the White Inn on Facebook. Within hours, two groups contacted her to say they were planning to clean up the property, too. The president of the Beaver Club, Dave George, had a volunteer crew set to take care of the White Inn grounds for the next few months. The Assistant Fredonia Building Inspector had been working on the problem too. When Jay Patel, one of the owners of J&K Precision Cleaning, heard about the community project, he volunteered the service of his company and equipment to clean the White Inn’s brick walk and cement porch.

“A day’s community cleanup is a small thing in the life of the White Inn, but it brings concerned people together to work on a problem,” she said. “If we can’t get the owners to pay for the upkeep of the property, the grass will grow back, and the White Inn will continue to crumble. This is not a unique problem, but an ongoing and visible problem.”

When looking for solutions to the White Inn, different approaches can be explored: Not just “How can we turn a profit?” we need to ask “What does our community need that this building could fulfill? We could use it as a place to learn building trades. Businesses need people who can hang drywall, do plumbing and run a restaurant. We could make it a place for people to develop marketable skills. BOCES could use it in their building trade program. After it opens JCC and SUNY Fredonia can use it as part of their hospitality program. It can be a hands-on learning opportunity. There is plenty of drywall to hang and plumbing to be fixed. There are plenty of things that a person could learn in a working kitchen.

This is just one of a number of concerns in our district that many local and regional officials have worked hard to address. “There are a number of areas where I hope to be helpful,” she said. “First, I hope to be helpful in the process of getting a larger water interconnect from Dunkirk to Fredonia. This issue has plagued the village for more than 20 years.

Any community that hopes to sustain businesses, schools, medical facilities and residences must have clean water, and a backup plan. Another issue is whether the current distribution of the sales tax in the county, which is based on real estate valuation rather than tax paid, is fair. And an important need in this rural county is to improve access to resources and support for the elderly, and other groups in need. ”

Marie Tomlinson is a Fredonia resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com