Election 2011_ Sterling District Puts Community First _ LoudounTimes

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/2/11 Election 2011: Sterling District puts community first | LoudounTimes.com

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Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011 by Laura Peters | 13 comments | Email this story

As the election heats up for Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in the Sterling District, threecandidates are vying for the seat.

Eugene Delgaudio, a Republican who has served on the board for 12 years, is hoping to serve his

community for another four. Challengers Democrat Al Nevarez and Independent Ali Shahriari,newcomers to the Loudoun political scene, say they plan to serve the community to the best of their abilities by putting residents’ concerns first.

Brenda Sheridan, who was appointed to the Loudoun County School Board’s Sterling seat inJune after the passing of J. Warren Geurin, is running unopposed. Although new to the board,she is eager to learn as much as possible and increase family involvement within the Sterlingschool system.

Eugene Delgaudio

Serving the area of Sterling for 12 years, Delgaudio stands behind his experience, accessibility,accountability and performance. Vowing to not raise taxes, he has voted down tax increases forthe past 12 years. He also reaches out to his constituents by standing by his promise to be therefor any emergency they have.

“Taxes are too high and there is too much spending in Leesburg. The board spends too muchmoney, too much taxes [and] too much time on wasteful programs,” Delgaudio said. “Anexample on that is the millions on the retrofitting old buildings with energy efficiency when

Sterling needs a renovation on the old Sterling Fire and Rescue station.”

Delgaudio also said he will to remain vigilant in keeping the streets of Sterling safe, especially with the new Sterling station for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. He stands behind gettingthe most for what Sterling residents pay for, including fixing roads, providing transportation,schools and recreation centers.

“I have promised that I will be continuing to be vigilant to prevent any opportunity for thecriminal element to take advantage of anything,” Delgaudio said. “I am constantly on the look out on any relaxation of the excellent improvements that we’ve been able to accomplish.”

Delgaudio also hopes to privatize public transit so residents can get it “cheaply, efficiently andquickly.”

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Election 2011: Sterling District puts community first



11/2/11Election2011: Sterlistrict utscommunit first | LoudounTi

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When it comes to Dulles Rail, he continues to oppose it.

“As far as Metro is concerned, I think Metro is similarly a waste of money. If my focus is to goafter waste and abuse and to be defending efficiency and government, I think that the wholetopic of Dulles Rail is a boondoggle in the sense that look at the return,” Delgaudio said. “They are just told to pay for services they don’t get because they’re driving a car.”

When it comes to water issues in Loudoun, Delgaudio said he feels they are not a big problem.

“Does Loudoun have a water problem? The short answer is no, or nothing that we can’t plan forand address,” Delgaudio said. “The entire storm water management system can be funded in asimilar, methodical, mathematical known to any college grad.”

In regards to business, he feels that revamping storefronts will help in raising rental value and vacancy problems and bring in more business. Delgaudio said that he feels with partnerships,improvements to businesses and roads will be the best fix.

Delgaudio lives in Sterling with his wife Sheila and has six children. To learn more about hiscampaign go to JoinEugene.com.

Al Nevarez

Nevarez said he believes in bringing the community feel back to SterlingPark. Taking a strong stance on breaking down barriers and stereotypesthat have been donned on Sterling, Nevarez also wants to end all gangpresence and negative connotation with Sterling.

“The crime rate in Sterling Park is a lot better than say, Fairfax, and alot of other places we would not consider to be crime ridden,” Nevarezsaid. “So much of it is perception. I think a lot of it is small crime thatadds to that perception. As far as big crime it’s not that,; however Ithink that there’s evidence of some gang elements and that’s somethingthat needs to be addressed and nipped in the bud. Especially withgangs, there should be very little tolerance.”

An updated community center, schools, maintaining properties andcleaning up neighborhoods to make it a more family friendly environment are big issues in Nevarez’s campaign. He also wants tocreate a more business-friendly environment for Sterling, especially forthe Dulles International Airport area, and one way he sees thathappening is with the extension of Metro.

“Dulles Rail is our future. I think that we need to make sure it gets outhere as soon as possible and it’s implemented in its full state,” he said.“I think once we get Dulles Rail out here we’re going to start finding thekind of economic opportunities that we’ve been looking for to balance

out the way the tax burden is distributed at this time. I don’t understand how people whoconsider themselves friends of business would not want to have that critical piece of infrastructure here.”

Change in Sterling also strikes Nevarez as a big issue. He feels that Sterling is reaching a turningpoint and change is happening quickly, especially with half-populated neighborhoods and ademographic shift.

“I think that what I would consider the negative manifestation of that is this racial divide or thiscultural divide that that negative manifestation gets a lot of attention,” Nevarez said. “I think just as much as I hear that there are a lot of other folks seeing the change and saying it’s notthat it’s all negative, it’s that we don’t have the resources to manage what this change means forus. I think dealing with that change in an honest way is going to be a big issue.”

Nevarez lives with his wife, Jeane and two daughters in Sterling Park. He currently works as aneconomic and policy analyst. For more information about his campaign go to Al4Sterling.com.

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11/2/11 Election2011: SterlingDistrict putscommunityfirst | LoudounT

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Ali Shahriari

Shahriari, a lifelong Loudoun resident was born in Leesburg, raised in Sterling and attendedLoudoun County Public Schools. Receiving a degree from Strayer University in economics,Shahriari said he feels his training as an economist will allow for an initiative for sustainablechanges in Loudoun.

“One of the aspects of my campaign is to really bring the political power back to the people,”Shahriari said. “I think it’s time to move past the partisan debate and ideologies that this isliberal and that’s conservative and really go to the heart of what people want. My stance would be the stance of the people.”

Making a stand as “the people’s candidate,” Shahriari said he believes that small businesses are

the backbone of the community and there should be a minimum wage increase based on theliving wage to create stable employment throughout Loudoun.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our community. To bring small businesses back toLoudoun County and to help small businesses survive in a harsh economic environment we needto provide incentives to businesses,” Shahriari said. “We need to provide ways for businesses to be economically efficient and sustainable, whether it’s tax benefits or waiver of fees.”

He also said he feels that there should be a bus service seven days a week and a completeoverhaul should be done on public transportation so it is more accessible for residents. Shahriarialso wants Dulles Rail to extend as far as possible provided that costs are reasonable and thatthe building, construction and planning processes are transparent.

When it comes to public safety, Shahriari is content with the new eastern Loudoun Sheriff’sOffice station, but believes law enforcement needs better funding.

“I think we need to better fund our law enforcement personnel and have a way to properly staff the Sheriff’s Office and for that matter any public safety or public servant position,” Shahriarisaid. “They need to be staffed to their needs. To do that we need to increase funding for theSheriff’s Office and at the same time we need to be cautious of how we spend that money and weneed to be fiscally responsible. We really need to put the money where it’s needed, take out the wasteful spending, wasteful habits.”

Shahriari is currently attending University of Maryland University College for his masters inenvironmental management. To learn more about his campaign go to ElectAli.com.

Brenda Sheridan

Sheridan was appointed to the Loudoun County School Board in June after the death of J. Warren Geurin, who held the Sterling seat. Sheridan was Geurin’s personal choice as hissuccessor and is running unopposed for the Sterling seat.

Sheridan became involved in the school system by participating in the Parent Teacher Association in her children’s schools and numerous and by volunteering for numerous efforts.

Sheridan’s concerns for the upcoming year are the budget, the anticipation of building new schools to prevent overcrowding and creating a sense of community in Sterling schools.

“I have learned over the years there is a negative attitude towards the Sterling schools and I would love to put an end to that,” Sheridan said. “I don’t want to use the word hate … but I dohate the fact that Sterling Park is referred to as the ‘ghetto’ and the ghetto school and I wouldlove to bring a sense of pride to Sterling Park so people are proud of the school they go to sopeople want to invest in that school and parents will get involved.”

Sheridan also said she feels that the increase of technology in schools serves as a good tool forstudents, especially if English isn’t their first language.

“The dynamic of being able to walk into the classroom and watch the kids participate and becomfortable with the technology, that’s huge,” Sheridan said. “Technology moves so fast and to be able to put that in a 5-year-old’s hands and have them go up and manipulate a white board,it’s fantastic.

“And for a child who’s 5 and doesn’t speak English it’s unbelievable because they’re able tointeract because it can be pictures and they can watch one child do it who understands thedirections and then go up and do it and be successful. It’s all about the child being successful



11/2/11 Election2011: SterlinDistrict utscommunit first | LoudounTimes.com

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ecause t en t ey want to eep go ng.”

As for the budget Sheridan said she believes that cuts need to be made, but on things that canhandle cuts.

“I think we need to take a step back to and see how important it is to fund education becausethat’s our future,” Sheridan said. “We have to be competitive in the world and if we don’teducate the children we’re not going to stay competitive globally or locally.”

Sheridan has two children, one who attends Sterling Middle School and another who goes toPark View High School. She has been living in Sterling for 13 years but was born and raised inRochester, N.Y. For more information on Sheridan and her campaign go toBrendaSheridan.org.

Comments

Tue, Oct 25 at 10:22 AM by Jonathan Weintraub | Report this comment

Supervisor Delgaudio,

Regarding your vote on the Claude Moore Recreation Center, was the vote forcapital improvements, or for operations. You mention $500,000 in yearly operational costs, but newsworthy votes typically involve large capitalexpenditures.

There were 13000 residents in the pre-redistrcted Sterling district. If 1300 of them or 10% use the rec center, the operational cost per user would be500,000/1300 or $385 per user or $35/month. Those fees may indeed pay operational costs but they are higher than other fees. My husband paysapproximately $200/year to use facilities in Western Loudoun. This begs twoquestions:

1. Who paid for the capital improvements? What was your vote in that regard?2. Should Sterling residents pay twice as much as western residents for similarservices?

Fri, Oct 14 at 02:20 PM by the complete story of ED | Report this comment

Freedom Man, You forgot bigot, racist, and homophobe. Party hack and out of County resident would fit too. But those things don’t play well on electioneering pamphlets.

Thu, Oct 13 at 09:05 PM by Dell | Report this comment

Grade A stuff. I’m uqnuesitoanbly in your debt.

Wed, Oct 12 at 03:00 PM by Barbara Munsey | Report this comment

David W, you are so funny to speak in the first person about commuter rail and

being in Sterling, not to mention “elitist” remarks!

From your tax-deferred country property in Catoctin, good to know YOU know best for Sterling!

Tue, Oct 11 at 02:09 PM by Freedom Man | Report this comment

My first-hand impression of Eugene Delgaudio is that he is an honest,trustworthy, hard-working, energetic and intelligent man, and he is a person whom I would gladly entrust again with the office of supervisor. If you are stillundecided about whom to vote for, I believe you can’t go wrong if you vote forEugene. He was born to be a supervisor in Loudoun County, and Loudoun

Anjan for School BoardThe only Dulles district candidate Endorsed by Senator Mark Herring

www.anjan4loudounschools.org

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Election 2011_ Sterling District Puts Community First _ LoudounTimes