Sierra Club endorses Kost and Starkweather

Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008

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Chapel Hill, NC - The North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club has endorsed Sally Kost in District 1 and Jeffrey Starkweather in District 2 in the race for Chatham County commissioner.

Sally Kost has 20 years experience of government finance/program evaluation experience and is current chair of the Chatham County Planning Board, as well as chair of the subcommittee reviewing subdivision regulations. She is a member of the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, Friends of the Rocky River, the Haw River Assembly, the Audubon Society, and Carolina Farm Stewardship. She supports replacing outdated development and environmental protection policies with ones that address climate change. If elected, Kost will to encourage green building, more recycling, and get the county to sign on to the Cool Counties program. Kost supports conservation initiatives and wants to use zoning to protect Jordan Lake from development that threatens the lake as a drinking water source. She also supports conservation easements on open space.

Jeffrey Starkweather has been active on environmental issues in Chatham County chiefly through citizen action groups such as Chatham Citizens for Effective Communities, Pittsboro Together, and Chatham Coalition, which he helped found and chaired early in its history. As representative of these groups, he has spoken at numerous Board of Commissioners meetings and other public hearings. He has consistently opposed haphazard growth, especially of residences. Starkweather understands how uncontrolled growth destroys the possibility of rational transportation maps, increasing the county’s carbon footprint. Starkweather’s positions on slower, planned growth will protect the county’s mostly rural character and it’s water supply (both quality and quantity). He understands that the county is changing and will not be preserved in amber, but the economic development that he seeks as a member of the Economic Development Corporation is not harmful to the environment.

The Sierra Club is thankful for the work of incumbents Mike Cross and Patrick Barnes, who were a great improvement over their predecessors. Cross founded the Southeast Chatham Advisory Council to work on air quality issues and to oppose a regional landfill in Chatham County, and supports good environmental positions on air quality in southeast Chatham, reducing the impact of spray fields, and standardization of water conservation rules in region through work with Triangle J council of governments. Barnes has also worked to reduce reliance on spray fields and we particularly appreciate his commitment to farm and open space preservation. We appreciate the good work done by incumbents Barnes and Cross, however, their voting records and positions have not been as strong as those of the other three commissioners currently on the Board, and Starkweather and Kost offer a long record of service and strong positions for environmentally minded voters to consider.

We strongly encourage Sierra Club members and other residents of Chatham County who care about the environment to support candidates who have shown leadership on these issues in the May 6th election. In light of numerous environmental challenges we will be facing in the years to come, electing candidates to the Board of County Commissioners who will make the environment a top priority is essential.