With a seat opening up, District 2 has four candidates vying for the position, a democrat, a republican and two independents. Each candidate agrees that zoning and the Richmond lagoon project are the issues most important heading into the election.

The republican candidate, Bob Yoder, is opposed to zoning and feels that rescinding it will make the County more attractive for business. While the other candidates feel the ordinance needs work, they wouldn’t get rid of it. Dawn McCoy, the democratic candidate, says the ordinance needs to be more user-friendly. Independent Mary Zielinski says the County only needs about half of the current regulations. The other Independent candidate, Randy Billups, disagrees with Yoder saying we need zoning to promote industrial growth.

As for the Richmond lagoon project the candidates have varying opinions, but are in agreement with McCoy’s position that the issue needs to be addressed. Yoder doesn’t believe a lagoon is the answer and says individual or cluster systems would be the better option. Zielinski agrees somewhat saying the issue wasn’t handled properly and says putting in a lagoon may turn out to cost residents of that area more than originally quoted. Billups says while he’ll listen to the residents of Richmond, none of the candidates know how far along the project will be, come the first of the year.