Clayton Kendrick is seeking a second term in the Mayo River District seat on the Patrick County Board of Supervisors for several reasons.
Kendrick, who will face Danny Foley in the November election, said he originally intended to serve just one term. But with so many projects underway, he decided to seek reelection to see those projects the board stated come to fruition, including broadband.
The county has been working to get service agreements in place and work underway to ensure connectivity in more areas, as well as other services to help local residents.
“Some of the committees that I’m on with West Piedmont (Planning District) and West Piedmont executive committee, there’s a lot of grants and all that stuff that we got started working on for Patrick County. I’d like to stay with them to try and see them through to make sure they” aren’t dropped, he said.
During his first four years on the board, Kendrick believes he and the other supervisors accomplished a lot, particularly when it came to the county’s budgets.
When he first came on the board, Kendrick said the accountants told officials the county would need to have another 11-cent real estate tax increase that first year.
“We all worked well together on it, and on the budget committee,” Kendrick said. “I’ve been on the budget committee ever since I’ve been on the board, and we managed to balance the budget in that first year without that 11-cent tax increase on the real estate.
“I think that was a really good accomplishment,” he said, adding the supervisors have also managed to keep all of the local taxes at a relatively low rate.
“We had one real estate tax increase, and I voted no for it. It was a 3-2 vote. I have not voted for any of the tax increases. Same thing this year, we balanced the budget again and actually got a little bit of money going into the contingency fund, and didn’t have to have a tax increase,” he said.
Kendrick said he wants to see the county’s progress go a little further.
“I enjoy doing it. I feel like I’m helping the people out in the county, and I enjoy doing stuff like that. So, I’m eager to do another one, or try to,” he said.
In addition to keeping real estate taxes low, Kendrick would also like to see the county’s broadband project finished, the Small Business Development Center project completed, and find other means of revenue.
“We need to look more at grants, outside money coming in instead of taxing the people who own property in the county to death. We have done a lot of it since we’ve been there. We’ve stretched it out to where we have the meals tax and the cigarette tax, and that stuff’s worked well,” he said.
Kendrick said when he first joined the board, he thought it could solve all the world’s problems and be done that first term.
But he has learned “there’s a lot of stuff that takes time to get done. It takes a long time of being on those committees to learn how they operate and who to call with what, and what buttons to push to get the most money for the county,” he said. “It takes time.”
