Our Delaware primary “Races to Watch” series returns to Sussex County Council and looks at District 2, where Sam Wilson is retiring, leaving that seat up for grabs.
Delaware Public Media’s Roman Battaglia talks to the candidates seeking to fill it in this month’s Republican primary.
Three candidates are running to fill the seat left by Wilson's retirement from the county council. Wilson served on the council since 2008.
District 2 covers the cites of Georgetown and Greenwood as well as most of the border with Kent County. As with much of Sussex County, the district is primarily rural.
The candidates include Sam Wilson’s son, Robert, a farmer based in Georgetown. He faces Cyndie Green, the county’s Register of Wills for over 10 years and Lisa Briggs, a retired state of Delaware employee.
Green sees running for county council as an extension of her time as Register of Wills. She says her experience working in the state government has taught her about the not so exciting parts of government work.
“I’ve been at the register of wills for ten years, I understand how the government works and the bureaucracy that’s involved in that," said Green. "And so we’d like our elected officials to be more involved, that’s the voice of the people. And so the bureaucrats that run the county, we’d like to see the elected official take more responsibility in the decision process.”
Green believes what’s needed on the council is a fresh face to highlight and address the issues facing Sussex County. One issue she’s passionate about is traffic. She says while the current council says traffic an issue, it isn’t doing anything to fix it.
“When you travel to New Castle their roads run great. Travel to Kent County, their roads run great. But when you come to Sussex County it stops there. So, it’s being talked about, it’s being addressed, but we’re just not getting it done," said Green. "So maybe we have some new voices in there and some new ideas, maybe we can actually act on the things that we’ve talked about doing. There’s been some great ideas, but we just don;t have anybody to act on it.”
Robert Wilson has lived in Sussex County his entire life, and is now a farmer and a small business owner, running a gas installation business. He says his knowledge about land use is the number one qualification to be on the county council.
“You know, people are coming all the time for zoning changes and that sort of thing, and at the same time if you don’t understand land use: AR1 and C1 and commercial and buffer zones. I’d bet you probably 40 percent of the stuff that goes on in council has to do with land use. And there again, I think there’s a lot of things that have to do with land use that I’ve been involved in over the years,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s biggest concern is development in Sussex County. As the county continues to grow, he says there needs to be a balance between the urban and rural parts of the county.
“We have to remember that agriculture is still number one in the state of Delaware, okay? And with that being said, when we do away with agriculture, I mean, what happens when you take a development and build 600 homes next to a chicken farm," said Wilson. "You know as well as I do, that’s not gonna work So we have to have a happy medium, the whole state of Delaware can’t just be one big development.”
Lisa Briggs worked for the state of Delaware in a variety of roles before retiring to the place she’s always lived, Sussex County. She wants to leave the county in a good place for future generations.
“I have roots in this country, I want to make sure that our children and grandchildren have a quality of life that I have experienced. I want to ensure the traditions that have made Sussex county an amazing place for our families and small businesses to thrive over the years to continue,"said Briggs. "I am able to dedicate my time to Sussex county because of my understanding for our community. Most of my work was listening to the public and solving the problems.”
Briggs sees two major issues facing the county. Like Greene, Briggs believes traffic needs to be addressed, saying while efforts have been made, more must be done to improve the roads in Sussex County. Her other focus is another kind of infrastructure, internet access.
“Another constituent concern is the infrastructure with broadband and the internet," said Briggs. "You know a lot of folks with the pandemic and everything going on. Kids are having to do their work online, a lot of the other business professionals are having to work online and that needs to be addressed and more focused on working with the service providers with getting broadband in our rural areas.”
No Democrats have filed to run for this office. Whoever wins this Republican primary is expected to run unopposed in November.
This article has been updated to correct a name mispelling.
Roman Battaglia is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
