“I am fiscally conservative and believe each taxpayer should know where and how their tax dollars are being spent. As a Blowing Rock Town Commissioner for eight years, I helped secure a $13 million bond to improve our Town infrastructure and Park and milled and paved every road in our Town. I was dedicated to completing the sidewalk from Main Street to the Bass Lake parking area, and I did. My recommendation to change our police vehicles to a Hybrid model saved the Town $40,000 in fuel costs.“

Sweeting says her first focus if elected will be to put forward action to improve the emergency response system. She says the EMS advisory Committee is reviewing its current for-profit emergency system versus a county system. “The committee is also looking at the practice of our County ambulance service transporting patients out of the county from WMC to a tertiary care hospital. This can leave our residents without an ambulance for 3-4 hours.“

Sweeting also says the Hwy 421 corridor is set to receive an ambulance bay and hopefully an ambulance. She believes the  next corridor to recieve an ambulance bay should be Hwy 321 to serve the people of Blowing Rock and the Blue Ridge precinct.

In reviewing the current County 2024/2025 budget, Sweeting says the budget “doesn’t have much fluff in it and is well thought out“:

“As a community, we must maintain our county and school buildings. If we don’t continue giving money to renovate the county and school facilities, we can expect children to remain in trailers, have no air conditioning and have leaky roofs, that could jeopardize their health.”

Sweeting bemoans that the State Legislature’s mandated voucher system is taking public tax dollars and giving it to private schools away from Watauga County and that the County is receiving less money for non-profit organizations from the State as well: “This money, that is being taken out of our county, could be used to fund our schools, provide needed pupil supplies and increase teacher supplements. The return of the voucher money to Watauga County would reduce how much money the County must give education to make up the shortfall from the State.”

Sweeting says “revenue neutral budgets require that we have a revenue neutral economy” and are not the answer:

“The rising cost of gas, electricity, paper goods, building costs and maintenance supply costs means we pay more for the same items. Since we don’t have a revenue neutral economy, the services to the people, wages to the employees, money given to nonprofits, must be cut. During election years, a revenue neutral budget is often used by candidates to win votes.”

To provide more affordable workforce housing in Watauga County, Sweeting suggests there is Federal Grant money to repurpose old motels or refurbish abandoned buildings to help provide affordable workforce housing which could be rented monthly at a reduced rate as long as the employee continues working with the employer. She also cites Leasing to Locals as an innovative plan that financially rewards and encourages VRBO owners of single family homes to return their homes into long-term rentals.

Sweeting says to consider a bond referendum to raise the necessary funds to build the proposed Brookshire workforce housing development the Board would need to first research what federal or state grant money is available; consider a partnership between the county and a developer, and then review the cost of borrowing from a bank that offers a low interest loan versus a bond referendum with a low interest rate.

Sweeting argues we have a Homestead Exemption for low income, elderly and disabled, set by Raleigh but that the qualifying income level is too low to help most of the families who need it. “I support raising both that exemption and the income benchmark in order to qualify.”

Sweeting opposes the State Legislature’s redistricting of Watauga’s commissioner districts that left over 20,000 Watauga voters without the chance to vote for candidates they want to represent them in local government for two years:

“There are 22,000 voters in Watauga County that are unable to vote for their County Commissioner during this election cycle. These disenfranchised residents are students who live in Boone but also the locals who live behind Earth Fare, the locals who live behind the Jones House, our founding black community in Junaluska, the professionals who live in Council Oaks, and the locals who live in part of Brushy Fork and New River precinct 1 and 3 and part of New River 2 precinct. Waiting two years (per Senator Hise’s Bill) to vote on a Commissioner, doesn’t seem fair. These two district seats should be filled by having a special election, so these disenfranchised residents can exercise their right to vote.”

Sweeting believes the current shortage of openings in local childcare centers is caused by “low pay, limited classrooms and teachers, and rising costs for food and to maintain licensure.” She believes businesses who hire the most employees should offer their own childcare centers or join with others to offer the needed childcare. She further notes that Appalachian University has two childcare centers that help provide low cost child care for students and employees and that Watauga Medical Center and Samaritan’s Purse should follow suit.

Sweeting notes that the County has in hand a preliminary study of water use completed by geologists and hydrologists at ASU but says unfortunately, there were Commissioners who opposed a follow-up study to assess the future availability of water sources. “As a County Commissioner, I will push to get the follow-up study done. We need to learn where development can occur that will not endanger the resources that we have.”