Platform Issues

Growth and Development-
I grew up, live, and work in Kannapolis. My goal is to preserve our past and continue to grow and develop Kannapolis in the future. Through growth and development we can gain new jobs. Our downtown area needs to be revitalized and is an excellent place to preserve our history. It needs to be filled with shops and shoppers again. I believe that we can grow our city and restore a pride that is lost in this community. The loss of shops in the downtown and businesses all over the city is a depressing sight.  The City has to take ownership and lead the community to give the Midway, Centerview, Shadybrook, Carver and North Kannapolis areas incentives to grow businesses. There is incredible growth potential in the George Liles Blvd and Exit 63 area, which should be a strong focus in looking toward the future. We have to be a business friendly city in all areas. The city needs to keep the community areas involved and rebuild a sense of unity and pride in Kannapolis.

Public Safety-
Now that plans are underway to construct a new Police Department, our public safety departments must focus on working with the community to provide a safe environment for its citizens. This is a primary goal if we are going to attract new businesses and retain our current residents. As citizens we must work and get involved with our public safety departments. There can be unification of communities through Community Watch and other programs which result in safer environments. In today's world communities need to be united with a plan for any type of disaster.  We train our emergency responders but citizens are not trained and organized on how to deal with a major emergency should one happen.  There are train tracks, nuclear power plants, and we are located in close proximity to a major U. S. city that all make our area susceptible to major emergencies. There is much improvement needed in the general publics education in the area of safety.

Public Works and Infrastructure-
It is critical that we fund and maintain our infrastructure to continue to bring new businesses and residents to our city. A city cannot grow unless it has an infrastructure to support growth. We should not only focus on the downtown area, but make this a citywide effort. We need to provide citizens with good highways that are well maintained. Recent improvements have been made but we need more.  We need to be proactive on these issues to continue further improvements.  Public Workers must stay current on what funds might become available through state and federal funding that can be obtained for the City.

Community Pride-
Due to the lack of jobs and growth in our community, I believe people have lost pride in Kannapolis and I want to see that pride return.   When the downtown area became largely unoccupied with many empty stores, it appeared to everyone that our city was not doing well and indeed it has suffered.  Jobs are a key to the downtown and other city areas being occupied. Widespread city development will promote pride in Kannapolis.  When people have jobs, there is income to be spent in stores and businesses thrive.  Work needs to be focused on bringing businesses into the city that will have jobs for our citizens.  Only then will we see more businesses because jobs and money brings the need for more goods and services.   A primary goal for the city is to do all they can to recruit businesses because they bring jobs.

Education-
I believe we should focus on providing the best education for our youth and continuing education for the unemployed. Education and training is essential to create economic growth. Employers are looking for trained and educated people and we need to be able to provide them with that base.  We also need to support and work with our county school systems on programs that enhance job training that conforms to the needs of this community.  We have a Community College system in our city and should continue to work hand-in-hand with it to offer specific training in labor markets that will be growing.
　
With a major goal of becoming a business friendly city Kannapolis can:

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