The winner of those primary races will not face a Democratic challenger in November’s general election. Their term will start at the beginning of 2021.
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Faulkner verses Cassady
Faulkner was first elected into his current county commission seat in 2012 and was reelected in 2016 after defeating Doug Hoffman, who served in an at-large seat on Urbana’s City Council, during that year’s Republican primary race.
Faulkner did not respond to a list of questions sent by the News-Sun.
Cassady said he has a total of 25 years of being involved in local government. He said in addition to being a business owner, he has also served with a number of community organizations and committees, including on the Champaign County Health District Advisory Council, the Champaign County Emergency Management Agency and the Board of Developmental Disabilities. He has also been a trustee for Goshen Twp. for 19 years.
Cassady said he is running because he would like to see more sensible economic growth in the county, but also praised school systems in the county as well as improvements made to county roads and to its transportation system.
“While I know that the commissioner’s do not create jobs, I do believe by listening and being engaged we can set the tone of our community for the future,” he said.
Cassady said it is important to ensure that sales tax revenue is stable as the state “continues to push responsibility on local communities without revenue sources to fund them.” He said that means being open minded to retail and industrial development that fits within a comprehensive plan that will help stabilize the tax base.
He said it will be important for him to improve relationships between county government and the townships, villages and municipalities within county limits.
“Increased cost associated with safety services are a reality. Many of our townships are dealing with this issue right now,” Cassady said. “The townships and municipalities are responsible for this but it is a quality of life issue for all Champaign County residents.”
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Hess verses Logwood
Hess said he was first prompted to run for the seat in 2000 by some members of the agriculture community in the county. He had previously served for three years as a member of the State Board of Trustees for the Ohio Farm Bureau, representing four counties including Champaign.
“As Champaign County is a strong and predominantly agricultural community, they felt that it was important for someone with a background, education and experience in agriculture to run for that seat and they felt that I would be a good candidate,” he told the News-Sun in an email.
Hess said he was prompted to run for another term this year as he feels there is more work that needs to be done, despite the county having systematically looked at its physical infrastructure and working towards taking care of deferred maintenance issues.
“As we look to the future, we need to try to create opportunities for the best and brightest of our Champaign County kids to live, work and raise families here and to become the community leaders of tomorrow,” he said.
Logwood currently serves as the Student, Family, and Community Support Coordinator for the Madison-Champaign Educational Service Center working at Graham Local Schools. She said she was prompted to run her first campaign for public office after years of working with the county as well as with a number of community organizations, including those that focus on public health and suicide and drug prevention.
“I am a leader capable of implementing a plan to ensure we have a healthy workforce and strong economy, where families can thrive,” she said in an email to the News-Sun. “I have secured over $3 million dollars of competitive funds in the last decade for health, wellness and prevention initiatives and been on teams that have secured an additional $1.5 million for after school programming and community change initiatives.”
Logwood said she wants to utilize her experience in strategic planning as well as capacity building, if elected as a county commissioner, to improve communication and collaboration within county government.
“My career has positioned me to work across systems and organizations in an effort to support stable families, thriving economy, and safe communities,” she added.
Hess said it is important for the county to look at ways to maintain good jobs as well as increase housing opportunities in the area. Last year, the Champaign Economic Partnership commissioned a study to examine the county’s current housing situation and what could be done to improve it.
The study compared local municipalities to others in the state that are tackling similar problems such as having aging housing stock, a fair amount of blighted properties and limited land for new housing developments.
“If we can attract and maintain good jobs, offer good housing possibilities, maintain a very safe and high quality of life atmosphere, and increase and enhance leisure, recreation, and entertainment opportunities, I think we can retain more of our homegrown ‘treasure’ and not let it get away to the benefit of some other community,” Hess said.
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He said that means continuing to work collaboratively with the City of Urbana, the county’s villages as well as its townships.
Logwood said she wants to establish cross-sector meetings within the county government structure as well as examine and address system inefficiencies, capacity issues, infrastructure issues as well communication barriers.
She said there should also be an emphasis on aligning county agency strategic plans to “address cross-cutting strategies to promote healthy lifestyles and a strong workforce.”
“In the past three years we have seen the economy improve, yet employers have struggled to find healthy, drug-free, workforce-ready employees,” Logwood said. “We must provide more local opportunities for youth to be exposed to the manufacturing, service, and technology sectors in our community, so they are able to make a living and contribute to our great county.”
The Springfield News-Sun is committed to providing unmatched coverage of Clark and Champaign County elections and will continue to provide in-depth analysis on candidates running in 2020.
WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU VOTE:
• Early voting is at the board of elections office. The Champaign County Board of Elections is located at the Community Center, 1512 South U.S. Highway 68. The hours are: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays until March 13; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 14; 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 15; and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 16.
• All vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked by Monday, March 16. You may have to ask your post office to postmark the envelope. You may hand-deliver your vote-by-mail ballot to the elections office any time until 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
• Election Day is March 17, and polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and if you are in line when polls close you will be allowed to cast a ballot.
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