Boyd District 1 heats up

Oct. 7—ASHLAND — Voters in Boyd County will have to decide between the hand of experience or a new direction when they go to the polls in November for the Boyd County District 1 Commissioner's seat.

The seat — which represents constituents throughout southern and western Boyd — has historically been a political knife fight, with multiple candidates vying in party primaries.

And this year's race is shaping up roughly the same — political newcomer Heather Moore-Frame is running to be the first woman to serve on the fiscal court against Democrat-turned-Republican David Salisbury, who beat out the sitting Republican commissioner in May by a gnat's hair.

Moore-Frame, a teacher in the Boyd County School system, previously ran in 2018 but was unable to make it out of Democratic primary. Salisbury, who works at 84 Lumber and is a referee and coach in youth sports, held the seat for eight years as a Democrat before being tossed out in the 2018 elections.

While the candidates mainly stuck with the issues during interviews with The Daily Independent this week, they did trade a couple barbs here and there.

Salisbury called into question how Moore-Frame could adequately serve the people of Boyd County when she works during the day — the meetings are at noon on the first Tuesday of the month, traditionally.

"I don't think somebody needs to be running for office when they can't make the meetings, just because they're a woman, I hate to say that," Salisbury said. "That's what I've heard in every single meeting I been at, that she wants to be the first female to serve on the Boyd County Fiscal Court. That's a tremendous thing, to be honest with you, but it doesn't need to be at the sacrifice of the people of Boyd County."

Moore-Frame replied meeting times can be adjusted by the fiscal court and "it's not his place to say if I can make it there or not."

"Noon is a terrible time to meet, because most people work," she said. "If we still continue to meet at noon, I will work with my principal and superintendent to make those accommodations. But having it at noon on a weekday excludes the hard-working people of this county from their government."

Moore-Frame said somebody who already held the office and didn't do squat with it should not be voted in.

"I don't think we need to go back and put other people who have been on there. That's not progress. What did they do?" Moore-Frame said. "Was it effective? Was there progress? I'm doubtful you could find it. It's just not there. So I think we definitely need to move forward."

Salisbury replied a commissioner is only a voting member of the fiscal court and "my experience speaks for itself."

"We did a lot while we were in," Salisbury said. "The tip of the sword of the fiscal court is the judge-executive. My record speaks for itself and if you look at it, we did a lot with that court. She'll learn in time."

Here's a breakdown on where the candidates fell on the issues:

Economic development

Both candidates expressed support for the direction Judge-Executive Eric Chaney has taken the fiscal court in terms of economic development.

Moore-Frame said she applauds the moves with Camp Landing and Revolutionary Racing, but she wants more "quality jobs, not just entertainment jobs."

"There's a lot of industries that are booming right now that could be booming here," she said. "Agro-Tech right now is big. It's doing well in Morehead. Why can't we get that to come a little farther east? It would be nice to have large-scale industry back, but we need to do what we can to cut the red tape to allow smaller businesses to do business here, too."

Salisbury said when he was on the commission in 2008, they tried a to something similar by looking into building a wave pool where Boyd County High School now sits.

"It didn't come to pass, but the idea was to have something like the Great Wolf Lodge up in Cincinnati. It would've been something that would have brought people in to stay the night," Salisbury said. "It's good to see that idea taking root with the track and Camp Landing."

Public-private partnerships

Salisbury said he had no problem with the public sector giving incentives to the private sector for economic growth, but he did say it's a hard line to tow between facilitating business and sponsoring a business.

"It's a slippery slope and you have to watch what you're doing. I think Eric has been right there on it. I don't think he's crossed it. I really don't. I've heard the good and the bad of it, I've heard the complaints, but you got to look at that scale, how it's going to impact things. I think this race track will impact Boyd County and hopefully for the positive," Salisbury said.

Moore-Frame said she's concerned who will benefit from the economic development drive by the county.

"I think it is too close to the line and it should be more of a representation of the people and the masses instead of just private businesses," she said. "The answer to that is transparency — we have to be open and honest to people about what we're doing and the future we're working towards."

Transparency

Moore-Frame said the key to transparency is more communication between the county government and the people.

"It's allowing people to ask you questions and answering in a way that isn't defensive or by saying, 'trust me.' No. That's not how it works. You have to communicate with people," Moore-Frame said. "I think our current commission doesn't do that very well — it's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, the plans they give to the public is very curated and it's meant to fall flat, it's not meant to be a dialogue. I think government should be a dialogue, I think we should be able to talk to them."

Salisbury said he feels like the court has made strides in transparency through the years, pointing out the meetings are now streamed online and recorded for posterity. He said one way to improve the access for citizens is to have meetings every once in a while at firehouses around the county, so people don't have to drive as far.

"It never came to fruition, but it's still an idea, it's still a hope that we could do stuff like that," Salisbury said.

Flooding

Both candidates expressed concern about the proposed retail space along the East Fork near Boyd County High School, stating they would like to have a closer look at the project as it moves forward.

Salisbury said he would fight to reduce flooding in southern Boyd by working with the state and feds to clean out the East Fork. He said alterations to the stream, like the straightening and widening when the KYOVA Mall was built in the 1980s, could be done throughout the stream to improve flow.

"When they put the mall in — they rerouted the East Fork — if you did that all the way out, made it bigger, wider and stronger, in my opinion that creates another economic development opportunity," Salisbury said. "Why can't you have kayaks going up and down the East Fork? Why can't you put in at different places? That creates a new opportunity, while also giving people in south Boyd the relief they need."

Moore-Frame said she wants to continue the work the county has begun with FEMA for stream improvements, but she wants to make sure the federal dollars benefit the little guy.

"If FEMA is working us, we have to utilize those forces. But we also have to make use of the money appropriately and help people who need it, not the businesses," Moore-Frame said. "Often time, it's these families, it's these houses, it's these roads in the far-out communities that are really affected. But a lot of time, they like to use it for the businesses instead of the people."

The Boyd/Ashland divide

Both candidates could come to agreement on this — there is a divide between Ashland and Boyd County and it needs to stop.

Moore-Frame said the county needs to work with the city of Ashland and its citizens because they are a part of the county.

"I do think communication is key on that and we have to work together. When you look at budgets, we know how much money is being shifted around, you look at what the county is working with for a budget and you look at what the city is looking at for a budget and it's way bigger for the city," Moore-Frame said. "We have to work with them."

Salisbury said building relationships with the Ashland city government is key to working on issues facing all Boyd Countians, such as water service.

"That's important to have those relationships — we're in this together, whether you want to admit it or not. and even with Ohio and West Virginia, we're in this together with them, too," Salisbury said.

Opioid settlement monies

Both candidates were in agreement that the county needs to be aggressive in getting its share of the multi-million dollar settlement the state will receive over the next 15 years.

Salisbury said the funds received from the settlement needs to go into law enforcement and the jails.

"There's all kinds of avenues this money can go, but what's most immediate in the control of the fiscal court is law enforcement," he said. "I know our guys need all the help they can get and this would be a good use for that money."

Moore-Frame said the county and the city would need to work together to get the most out of the funds.

"I think they're going to get a good portion of those funds, but we need to work with them to support that, because we are all in this drug epidemic together," she said.