I know, I know. I’ve been absent from blogging. With good reasons. I am not only raising my son alongside my husband, but I am also running a local campaign for City Commissioner in my town. For those of you in Nicholasville, I hope that this blog post can provide the information you need to get to know me, and my stances better. I have a page dedicated when you go to the menu on my campaign, but the writer in me wanted to provide a post that gives more details on: “MY WHY”, and a few of MY IDEAS (which are just ideas – some that I have drafted for proposal). If you don’t live in Nicholasville, I urge you to (and if you do live here), get more involved in your local government. Attend a meeting or two, get out and experience the community, and everything your town has to offer. Make notes, get inspired. It only takes one person to initiate a movement or some change.
Why I Chose to Run for City Commissioner
There are many reasons why I chose to run for this position, and the writer in me wants to explain in great detail, but I know our attention spans are shorter these days. But that’s why I have a blog! I don’t have to keep it short and sweet. So here are all the reasons I’m running:
To Serve & Connect
I want to serve the community, by not only being a voice they can rely on, but as someone that votes with each and every resident in mind. I want to serve others directly, by helping the Commission make decisions that have an impact on everyone in the community. I want to propose ideas, while getting to vote on those ideas as long as the community backs said ideas. I’m not interested in guessing what our town needs either. I want to connect with y’all through open forums, digital updates, and even old-fashioned face-to-face conversations to ensure the ideas I propose are the ones you actually care about.
I believe a Commissioner should remember that they’re a neighbor first, and a representative second. I’m here to serve y’all’s interests, and connect our community to the people making the big decisions. I’m not just looking for a seat on the Commission, I’m looking to pull up a chair for each and every one of us at the table.
To Inform & Protect
I want to make the Commission more transparent in the decisions they make and help make workshops and meetings more accessible and easier to digest. I want to bring in more digital and easy ways of making information readily available and comprehensive. While I can inform the community now, like others have been, on things happening – imagine if it was a local government official that shared information as it happened, and not just around election time. Some of the ideas to bring in this informative era to the City Commission include my idea on a “State Road Dashboard” and the “Online Public Tracker”. I want to move past the complicated documents and fine print. Imagine a simple, digital dashboard where you can see exactly where a road project stands or how your tax dollars are being spent, right from your phone. We shouldn’t have to be detectives to know what’s happening in our town, and I believe having a road dashboard that shows who is responsible for what road (State, County, City) and where its progress is at, would benefit those who not only reside in Nicholasville, but in Jessamine County as a whole. It could even be a joint-project with the county. Other towns have systems like this, maybe we should take notes.
I want to protect all residents by pushing for upgraded park safety and even classes to help prevent those vulnerable to scam and phishing attempts. Our parks should be a sanctuary for our kids and families, which is why I’m pushing for better lighting, regular maintenance, and increased safety measures – including smart-locks for bathrooms! Protection also means looking out for our most vulnerable neighbors. With so many scams targeting our seniors and families today, I want to find more ways on how the city can host simple, accessible classes that teach us how to spot a phishing attempt or a phone scam before it’s too late – even if we could allow groups focused on this, to use city space to inform citizens of these dangers, that would be a great thing to look into. I’m asking for your trust, and am working to earn it through transparency and a commitment to keeping every corner of Nicholasville safe and informed.
To Balance & Sustain
I want to balance infrastructure and growth. I personally believe we have been growing way too fast as a town, and our infrastructure and amenities haven’t reflected that growth. I want to do this while also preserving our rural areas. As we grow, our amenities, such as utilities to accessible recreational spaces (the pools, schools, etc.) should grow with us. I want to focus on sustainable development that adds real value to our current residents’ lives, rather than just filling up empty spaces.
Preserving our rural areas isn’t just about the aesthetics. It’s about sustaining the character that makes Nicholasville, and Jessamine County as a whole, a place families want to call home. I want to protect some of our green spaces and our local farms from being swallowed up by developers – so the next generation can enjoy the same town we fell in love with. One of my ideas for this is my proposal for “Concurrency Requirements”, which would basically make developers responsible for upgrading infrastructure to meet the development they desire to work on. This could also prevent developers from proposing development that would risk our quality of life, and health. I want to see Nicholasville thrive, but I want us to do it the right way. By being smart, patient, and putting the needs of our current neighbors first!
How The Campaign is Going
The campaign is going well, but to be honest, running for office has been eye-opening, interesting, and such a crazy experience. Between designing my campaign materials (and helping others design theirs), keeping up with local project updates (whether it’s by attending meetings, emailing here and there, and or watching back meetings), and balancing life at home, it’s a lot of work, but it’s the best kind of work! I’m learning so much about the inner workings of our town, and it only makes me more determined to make that information and those meetings easier for everyone else to access. I have been telling people that attending a meeting at least once, is such a fun learning experience of what our local government does. And they do more too! They don’t just serve in the meeting room, they serve out in the community as well, which is what I want to do too!
How You Can Support Me
I have over 100 signs out and about. Some locally made by 859 Laser Designs, and some bought off a cheap website online. I actually just ordered new signs that are more legible and don’t blend in with yards from the local business, 859 Laser Designs again, that should be in any day now. If you’d like to request a sign, please email me at caitie@lifewithcaitie.com! If you want to support me in other ways, you can like/follow my campaign Facebook page, Caitlin Lamb for Nicholasville City Commissioner! I post very often on that page, and would love to have you join the conversation.
If you live in Jessamine County/Nicholasville, Kentucky: REMEMBER TO VOTE MAY 19TH! I will be #5 on y’all’s ballot under Candidates for City Commissioner.
Ways That You Can Get More Involved In Your Community
If you’re reading this and thinking, “dang, I need to get more involved too!” – well, here are some resources and further reading on how you can become more involved in your local government and your community:
- https://sheshouldrun.org/resources/3-ways-to-get-involved-in-local-government/
- https://www.change.org/l/us/community-power-how-to-get-involved-in-local-politics
- https://www.govocal.com/blog/10-easy-ways-to-be-a-more-engaged-citizen
- https://www.jxnneighborhoods.com/news/10-ways-to-get-involved-in-your-community
If you don’t want to run for an office, you could always start a blog like I did, and write about local things happening! That’s how I got my start in being more involved in Nicholasville.
Thank you for reading, and all of your support.
For legal reasons, though this is MY blog site that I don’t make money off of at the moment, this blog post is sponsored and paid for by Caitlin Lamb for Nicholasville City Commissioner!
Life With Caitie 