05/28/2026
Update 9
5 days to primary election on June 2
159 days to general election on November 3
I did my last meet and greet in Drakesville. There were two people for that. One, came by just incase I was sitting there alone, which I was. How awesome is that? She didn't have questions and I already have her vote, she just came to support me incase no one else did.
The other person actually came to unlock the door for me. He thought he was early but he was actually late. There wss a mix up on the time. He stayed to chat and give me his road complaints. Anyone who talks to me about the roads counts as an attendee!
I filed my campaign reports with the state listing my donations and expenses. I'll need another $300-$500 by fall to get through the general election. I'm running a cable ad the entire summer. I need to stay in the spotlight. I will also post my funny animated Facebook ads on my page and the Bloomfield Chat page. Of course I'll keep doing my updates on my campaign page and be hitting all the community events that I can.
I had a fellow call me about the roads. He wanted me to come over to measure the width and depth of the potholes on the crowned roads that supposedly won't get potholes because of the crown.
There's been farmers going to the supervisors meetings the past few weeks to complain as a group. I'm just missing it and having to read about it like a civilian. See! This is why the meetings need to be recorded.
I told him I can't write about it because it would be considered a conflict of interests. I could sure come have a look though.
After a day of trapping jobs, I stopped by his house where I left my bucket of raccoon kits sitting in the shade while we did a road inspection cruise.
Obviously there's nothing I can do about it now. Is there anything I can do about it later? Do I even need to do anything about it?
I thought about that a lot. You can't please everyone so who do you please?
Maybe crowning the roads is the best option, but if everybody hates it, we could just stop doing it.
It would be a matter of determining if the majority of people like or dislike the roads, as well as if they prefer to spend more money on gravel if they're not crowned. Keeping the roads at 24 feet saves around $1800 per mile on gravel. That's a lot of money.
How would you know what the majority thinks?
Recently a friend asked me what a supervisor does. In that conversation she asked why we even need organized government when you can use a Facebook poll and find out what kind of pizza everyone in Bloomfield likes. Meaning, it's so easy to use digital methods to vote on things and go by the majority for all decisions. (That's how I interpreted what she meant anyway.)
Well, what if we surveyed everyone in Davis County who wanted to be surveyed? Of course it wouldn't be like an official presidential vote, but it could give a really good idea of the majority opinion.
I recall Karen writing an editorial about Main Street doing their community surveys using only Facebook. Karen was against it because it left out the people who don't use social media or computers at all.
Okay, so we could have an online survey plus an option to mail in your preference or even call it in.
Well, where do you mail it to or who do people call? I could rent a p.o. box and setup a Google voicemail account.
To be counted, people must include their name, address, and phone number. They must be registered voters. I bet I could figure out an AI program to cross reference names and addresses.
What about fraud? Well, once again, it's unofficial to just get an idea of where people stand. Besides, percentage wise, how many people in Davis County do you think will try to impersonate registered voters just to give their opinion about the roads?
I put a lot of thought into this because it's going to be my job to meet the needs of the people, but I have to know the needs of the people.
Of course, I'm just trying to come up with fair solutions before the problems are dropped on my head.
Another idea is holding a townhall where the engineer presents the evidence and people can come and present the complaints, ask the questions, and weigh the financial cost.
Maybe a petition with a certain number of signatures of county residents is another option.
I guess what I gleaned from this experience that so far has only happened in my head, is that as one person, I won't have the authority to change anything, but at the bare minimum, I need to be able to gather information and present it to people on how they can go through a process to get things changed if it's that important to them and they're willing to do the foot work.
Like, we need to make a flow chart for complaints that mark a path through dismissal on to resolution.
