Preston Town Commissioner Candidate Forum

The Town of Preston will elect a new commissioner on Monday, April 28. The two candidates running for the single available seat are incumbent Nelson Anderson and challenger Scott Messick.

On Thursday, April 24, the Caroline Review hosted a candidate forum in Preston to give residents the opportunity to meet both candidates and get a feel for their vision for the town. Caroline Review Publisher Debbie Bowden moderated the forum and gave her reasoning for deciding to coordinate the event, “as we are talking about small town governance and politics, it's important that the press be a part of that.” 

The two candidates began by introducing themselves to the handful of attendees and giving a bit of their personal backgrounds.

Anderson opened, “I've lived on Fooks Avenue since 2007. I moved here from my wife's job – she's a teacher at Colonel.” He went on to explain that after just a couple of years living in Preston, he was asked if he considered joining the Planning and Zoning Commission, “and I thought, well, I bought a house here. I want to… be invested in the area, so I offered myself up, and a couple years later I got elected to be Commissioner. I've enjoyed being a part of the town…it gave me an opportunity to become more part of the community, and I've enjoyed doing that.” 

Messick followed with his own introduction, sharing that his family’s roots in Preston date back to 1930, “and growing up in the military, this was always home. Every time we were in between some place, this was home.” Messick currently serves on Preston’s Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as being the Director of IT for the Town of Easton.

Messick explained he is running for a seat on the Town Commission because, “I've worked in local government for 40 years. I've been part of the building of wastewater treatment facilities and water plants and roads and utilities, you name it. I have been part of the interior structure of the local government in Easton specifically for the last 15 years. I know how government works. All of the certifications you might need to sit in the seat I already have. I want to see an open and involved government…as a member of the planning commission, I see that there are some things that could be better.”

One of Messick’s specific goals would be to “ensure that the staff has all the training and tools they need to do their job…I'd like to make sure that we are following the code and taking advantage of the opportunities in the code to fix some of the problems in town.”

Messick also said that he wants to see Preston “get back to a spot where I feel comfortable telling my grandson, ‘when the street lights come back on, you need to be home’.”

Anderson said that he is running for re-election because he is a seasoned member of the Commission, having served over 13 years, and feels that his experience with some of the long-term issues that the Town of Preston has dealt with is valuable.

“My biggest reason for running now is because I'm the only one that's been through a lot of the things that had been going on previously, like the [wastewater] treatment plant…And I thought, well, they put me on this. They decided to put me on to fill Doug [VanDerveer]'s seat when he left, and I thought maybe there is a reason for me to continue to be here, and I certainly enjoy doing it. And so that's basically why I'm running again, because I felt like I had some history that I could impart to the group.”

Anderson said he wants to see the finalization of the wastewater treatment plant project, increased resident safety, improvements to community amenities like parks, and for Preston to retain its “small-town feel.”

“We've been working on [the wastewater treatment plant] for a number of years, and that is close to completion, as best as we can complete it. We were doing a project to try to cut down the amount of inflow from runoff, and that's still kind of a work in progress…improvements to the safety of the streets, we've been talking about that a lot lately in the [Commission] meetings. Getting that in place would be key.” 

The wastewater treatment plant and sewer pipe re-lining project were a focus of conversation. One resident, Jean Blake, questioned the specific processes and setbacks of the endeavor. Anderson explained that the town faced pressure from the state to be fined or to build the plant. Multiple stopgaps, like funding and construction setbacks, caused major delays. In total, the plant has been about eight years in the making, according to Anderson. While the treatment plant itself was finished in 2023, the town is now finishing up a pipe re-lining effort “to diminish the amount of inflow from runoff.”

“A lot of that started from the state, pushing us to do that, and not necessarily because we wanted to do it… A lot of the things that happen here, there isn't a whole lot of choice in what is done…everyone that has been here has wanted to do what’s best for the town,” Anderson said.

Messick said that from his point of view from the Planning Commission, the treatment plant’s limited capacity may pose issues for future major development, but he is confident that the re-lining of the sewer pipes will help. “While I may not have all of the background, that is something I would strive to get completed,” he said.

Another topic of conversation was speeding on certain roads in town. On this issue, Messick said, “that's really one of the reasons I first came in here was a discussion about speed limits and how to slow traffic, because I've been working with the police department in Easton for 15 years, in the engineering department for longer than that…speed limits don't change behavior... so you have to do other things to try and influence the behavior of that person. And enforcement is not it, because we cannot man enforcement 24/7.”

Messick proposed a solution to the current speeding problem on Fooks Avenue. “At the end of Division, there's enough on the shoulder of Main Street that you could come out and put just enough of a curve to bring the bring Fooks to a 90-degree perpendicular intersection…take that straight shot off of Main Street onto Fooks Avenue out of play, you will naturally slow traffic.”

Anderson, who lives on Fooks Avenue, talked briefly about the Caroline County Sheriff’s Department’s recent efforts to track traffic patterns in this area via a speed camera. While a second report has not yet been discussed with the Town Commissioners, Anderson said he is in favor of rumble strips as opposed to other methods like speed bumps. He said that the rumble strips will not only get the attention of the driver but will also make enough noise to alert pedestrians and children on Fooks that a car is approaching.

The last specific concern brought by residents was the condition of some of the buildings in town and plans for future development. Regarding abandoned or neglected buildings in town, Messick said “It's a health issue, it's a safety issue, it's an environmental issue. My objective would be to get those parties that are responsible for that in this county and state together, along with the sheriff and town, and knock on the door.” Anderson followed up, “I certainly agree that if there is a building in that state, it should have been brought forward, and whatever needed to be done should have been done to remedy that.”

The candidates each spoke to a balancing act between protecting Preston’s small tax base while taking into consideration new development. ““I kind of go back to when I first started coming to these meetings, and they were talking about putting a bypass around town and there was a lot of conversation about it. I wasn't that familiar with it, but there was a lot of conversation going back and forth. They don't want the town to change. They want the town to stay the way it is. They don't want the bypass. The farmers didn't want the bypass; they didn't want to give up their farmland. And generally, I've been pretty happy with the way the town is, plus we don't have the water or sewage capacity to really enlarge the town without a major change there,” Anderson said, “I want to make the town better in any way that it can be better, you know, by improving the safety, more amenities around the area, because we'd all probably like to have a store here. I'd certainly be in favor of that…I'm not really looking for a whole lot of change. I want the small-town feel.”

Messick replied that, “while I do very much enjoy the small town, it can't stay the way it is and expect to survive… we will be consumed by the county.”

During the candidates’ closing statements, each took the time to reiterate their experience with local government and with the Town of Preston.

Messick closed by saying, “Preston's been my home since I can remember. It's always been dear to me, and over the last almost 40 years I've spent in local government, I've seen how government can work and doesn't work, and I would like to see more of an open government that tells the public what's going on…We need to make sure they know what's going on and they're participating.”

Anderson summed up his history with the Town Commission and the fact that the majority of the current Commission is new, “I have been part of this for, you know, 13 plus years. I have a feel for what's going on here. I just feel like I can bring some history to the seat…. Because right now, there are three very new people that have been on there. I guess they're going into their second year now, so there are a lot of very new people, and I can bring some history to the board.”

The polls will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, April 28. The winner of the election will be announced that evening at the Commissioners’ workshop which begins at 7 p.m., and the elected Commissioner will take their seat at the first regularly scheduled Town Commissioners meeting in May. Town Manager Amber Korell shared that the Town of Preston currently has around 570 registered voters, with over 40 voted in the most recent town election.