Amos-McCunn race highlights local primary
Montgomery County residents head to the polls on Tuesday, June 7, and cast their ballots in the Republican and Democratic parties’ primary elections.
Polls open on June 7 at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m., though early voting can be done at the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office through Monday, June 6, during business hours, and absentee ballots can still be requested.
The District 3 Board of Supervisors chair is the only contested county race, with incumbent Bryant Amos running for the nomination against challenger Mike McCunn.
The Express posed questions to the two candidates.
Bryant Amos
Amos moved back to Red Oak with his wife Chris and managed, then later owned, a beer distributorship. They sold the building and Amos later went to work for Parker Hannifan. Upon his retirement, Amos said the additional time allows him to do the things that are important.
‘The retirement gives me a lot more time, and I’ve always wanted to devote more time to the county position. I love to be involved with people. I always have been. I’ve done things to help with Junction Days and any other events going on. Also I’ve spent time on the city council and school board, I think successfully, so I have the experience,” Amos said.
Why he’s running for re-election:
“I think we have a lot of good things started. This will be the end of my 12th year. Things don’t happen spontaneously because I say it’s going to happen. It takes years of people working together to get to where you want to be. I think in the last eight years especially, we’ve made tremendous gains in the healthy financial stability of the county. We have funding now, and sure you’d like to cut taxes, but people want to see things fixed. So you have to hold onto that. We’ve been able to lower some levies. That doesn’t mean we take in less money, we still take in more money because the valuations go up. But it’s being able to hold onto some of that and start making these improvements we need, such at the courthouse and Highland Annex. Also, the passage of the gas tax has been tremendous for the roads. We’re just in our second year of that. It gives us a lot more freedom for gravel. We’ve just got a lot of things that we’ve gotten started that you don’t start overnight. It’s been a long process to get there and I want to see them through,” Amos said.
What does he think are the biggest issues moving forward:
“Of course it’s always the money. Will the valuations hold there, or will the valuations go down. If they go down, our dollars go down. Then it gets back into the mode of 12 years ago, where you’re just taking in enough money to exist and do the basics. There’s just not enough money to do those improvements you need. I think that’s going to come to us soon, and that’s why I want to get these improvements finished. I don’t see the future always being as bright as it is right now in having the funds to do the capitol improvements we need to do. We’ve been able, in next year’s budget, through the idea of Stephanie Burke, to set aside money for infrastructure improvement. That money stays there for infrastructure only, and carries over from year to year. A few years back we were not allowed to have a fund like this, and now we are, so it’s a good thing to start for us,” Amos commented.
If re-elected, what would be your initial priorities moving forward:
“On the agenda, which we have set money aside for, are improvements to Highland Annex. Possibly a heating and cooling system that we will address, along with the roof. We put on a new roof about 10 years ago, but it’s the heating and cooling units up there that are relay causing us problems. I think we need to look at that hard and consider replacing the whole heating and cooling system. That could eliminate part of our roof problems, and eliminate the need for putting a pitched roof on there. I think anyone would rather have a pitched roof over a flat roof, but if you can eliminate the holes in your roof, that’s a possibility we could get to by installing a new heating and cooling system. Also, at the courthouse, once we have the roof done, we have some structure problems on the exterior, such as tuck pointing. We would also like to do improvements with the heating and cooling and eliminate boilers in the future. Maintenance Coordinator Dan Wright has been doing a very good job at making improvements inside the courthouse. We’re basically looking at paint. I think we have one ceiling that has plaster issues. Most of the ceilings can be fixed with paint. When it comes to overall maintenance, we’re in pretty good shape. I think three years from now, you’ll see a courthouse that is pretty much spotless,” said Amos.
Mike McCunn
Challenger Mike McCunn has been a lifelong resident of Motgomery County, along with his wife Connie. McCunn has four children and 14 grandchildren. For the last ten years, McCunn has been the maintenance director of the Good Samaritan Nursing Home.
“Prior to that, I ran my own construction company from 2002 to 2006, and I also worked as a production manager for the Red Oak Express for a few years, and farmed for 10 years with my brother and my dad,” McCunn said.
Why he’s running for election:
“I got tired of the way the secondary roads were being maintained. They’ve gone downhill in my estimation for a number of years. I’ve lived in Montgomery County all my life, and lived north of town most of my life. I’ve seen a steady erosion of the quality of the roads. Very little rock was put on them, and no maintenance rock was put on them. Wash-outs on the side of the roads never get fixed. That was one of the key things that made me decide. The other is the courthouse. It seems to me it’s taken forever to put a roof on that courthouse, which is shouldn’t of. I know it’s been said they didn’t have the money, but you can find the money someplace. The Annex roof should have been fixed a long time ago also. It’s a flat roof, and a flat roof doesn’t work. The units were set flat on the roof, and not on any kind of curb. It’s little things like that. When you’ve been in construction like I have, basically all my life, you just know those things. So I bring a lot of experience to the table in terms of construction, business, things like that.
What does he think are the biggest issues moving forward:
“Trying to get some more industry in, but you have to partner with the city and other entities to do so. I’m not sure the Board of Supervisors can do that, but they can make sure the infrastructure is good enough to support more industry. I think that’s one of the key things. I also think we need to prioritize our spending a little better. Maybe try and lessen the tax burden if we can. I’m not sure that’s possible now, but it’s an issue as well,” said McCunn.
If elected, what would be your initial priorities moving forward:
“The first thing I’d focus on is the county roads. There are a lot of people that live on those roads that have to drive through mud to get to the highway. I’m going to ask a lot of questions about why we are not taking care of these roads. The second question I would have would be why it has taken so long to fix our infrastructure. I’ve done maintenance for 10 years, and done construction since I was 25 years old. Maintenance is a key thing to keeping anything running. Those are concerns of mine that we would need to focus on. I’d also look at the budget, look at the way things are being spent, and ask lots of questions about it. I would be new, and I don’t think anyone who has been elected has ever gone into the job knowing everything there is to know about it. There’s a lot of learning that would go on, and I would have a lot of questions. I’m not afraid to ask questions, and ask why things are done certain ways and why they can’t be done other ways. That’s just my nature, I guess,” commented McCunn.