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The Town Council candidates we think best-suited for the job ahead are incumbent Fred Hamilton Jr. and challenger Karen Lavery. We recommend them to fill the two council seats up for election Tuesday.
Hamilton and Lavery have demonstrated strong leadership skills in several different roles in the community -- Hamilton on Town Council and Planning Commission and in the effort to annex areas along Buck Island and Simmonsville roads; and Lavery with the H.E. McCracken Middle School Improvement Council, the Bluffton Rotary Club and the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society.
Electing Lavery, a resident of the Buckwalter area, will bring more balance to a council long dominated by residents of old town Bluffton. Still, as an 18-year resident of Bluffton, she has respect for its history and community traditions.
We haven't always agreed with Hamilton on his stances -- for example, the need for the Wharf Street housing project and increasing the number of council members -- but he brings passion to the job and is an independent thinker.
In our interviews with them, Hamilton and Lavery demonstrated a good grasp of the issues facing Bluffton and a willingness to fight for what they thought was right for the town. That's especially true for Hamilton, a six-year veteran on the council. (We urge you to listen to the interviews with Hamilton and Lavery, as well as Ted Huffman and Allyne Mitchell; go to islandpacket.com/election).
High on all four candidates' list of priorities is restoring and protecting the May River. That's as it should be. The town's promise to the community is to protect and preserve the river, which defines Bluffton as does nothing else. Unfortunately, efforts so far have fallen far short.
Here's where backbone will be important. The council needs to set out a course to rethink and redesign development plans the town has already approved. The word "no" will be an important part of council members' vocabulary. They must persuade the community at large and the developer community in particular that the status quo won't do. They must work with Beaufort County to achieve their goals. And they must show the community the way to accomplish what everyone says they want -- a clean river for generations to come.
This comes at a price, and leadership and vision will be key.
We expect both from Hamilton and Lavery.
