Albert D. Clark, 59, of Gwynn, has announced his candidacy for a seat on the Mathews County Board of Supervisors in the Nov. 7 election. He is running as an independent.
Clark said he is running on a theme of common sense.
“Not common good, not moral fiber,” he said. “Common sense. When is common sense coming back in this county?”
Clark said he has always voted Republican, “but this is Mathews County. It’s not the state of Virginia, it’s not the United States. We need things brought back here.”
There was a time when Mathews was a fishing community, with oyster houses and industry, said Clark, but those times are gone, and “there’s nothing to keep youth out of trouble or to keep them here to prosper.”
He said the first thing that’s needed is to “stop giving our money away to people that bully us.” He pointed to the cost of septic pump-out at Hole in the Wall restaurant, of litigating lawsuits, of removing a sunken boat from near a public dock, and of the purchase of two different pieces of land for a new firehouse as examples of money that could better be used for other county needs.
“It’s the frivolous way we’re throwing away our money,” he said.
The budget that was recently passed “should’ve been looked at to figure out what we need and don’t need,” said Clark. “Schools are in hideous condition physically.”
Instead of purchasing a new piece of land for a firehouse, said Clark, the county should have subdivided the land it already owned. And he said the board should work to bring in a second grocery store and perhaps a Dairy Queen—“something simple.”
“I don’t want us to stay in the 1950s,” he said. “I want us to be in the 21st century. But I want it to stay the country town it is.”
Finally, Clark said that more transparency is needed on the board. He decried the use of closed sessions.
“It shouldn’t be like that,” he said. “Why not discuss it right there, in public? … I just think we’re going in the wrong direction again … The people of Mathews should have a say in what’s going on.”
Clark has a background as a heavy equipment operator in the electrical industry, working for large utility companies and overseeing multi-million-dollar projects across the U.S. He served as a journeyman lineman for 25 years, spending much of that time responding to emergency outages from hurricanes, ice storms, and other natural disasters. For the past six years, he has been a heavy construction coordinator for a Texas company that constructs high voltage lines for Dominion. He is a five-year member of the IBEW.
A Lancaster County native and graduate of Lancaster High School, Clark moved to Mathews in 1997, marrying a local girl, Tabby Smith, two years later. They have one adult child. He is an active member of Oriental Lodge 20 AF&AM and enjoys fishing in his spare time.
A total of nine candidates are vying for three at-large seats on the board of supervisors. Incumbent candidates Jacqueline T. “Jackie” Ingram and Paul Wesley Hudgins (both independent) are running against Republicans Billy R. Cook Jr., Randall A. “Randy” Dobson and Patricia B. “Tricia” Stall. Also in the race are independents T.C. “Tom” Bowen III, Janice Hudgins Phillips and Timothy P. Doss, who have been endorsed by the Mathews Citizens for the Common Good.