PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Page Valley News will be publishing profiles of seven local candidates in three contested races in this fall’s general election from Aug. 11 through Sept. 1. These Q&As will be published around midday on Mondays and Thursdays.
In September, PVN will be broadcasting pre-recorded candidate forums among the candidates in these three contested races through our YouTube channel. Click on the link here or the YouTube icon in the upper right on our Home page to subscribe to our channel ahead of time.
Clifton “Bucky” Thomas
- Age: 54
- Education: BBA, James Madison University, 1991; Major in Business Management, Minor in Economics.
- Work: Director, Kontoor Brands (Wrangler), Luray/DC, 2020-present; Vice President of RDCs, Sysco Front Royal, VA and Alachua, FL, 2014-2019; Sr. Director RDC Engineering and Standards, Sysco RDCs, 2009-2014; Manager, Sysco RDC, Front Royal, VA, 2005-2009; Owner Operator, Blue Ridge Homesteads LLC, 2003-2005; various engineering and manager roles, VF Jeanswear (Wrangler), 1991-2003.
- Community service: Volunteer member, Board of Trustees, Page County Technical Center.
- Elected office: None.
- Family: Wife, Teresa; sons, Cliff (wife Lauren) and Addison; daughter, Hannah (husband Kevin); grandchildren, Tucker and Sadie.
• Why are you running for public office?
My only purpose in running for chairman is to serve Page County and my fellow citizens. When I say I will serve the county, it is all of Page County not just the district in which I live. Obviously, we may not always agree on what is best for the county, but I will always be open to listening to other opinions and suggestions. I have enjoyed a very successful professional career, but now it is time for me to give back to the community that has been so good to me.
• What makes you the best candidate for chairman of the Page County Board of Supervisors?
Experience. I have approximately 35 years of experience in business. During this time, I have gained a wealth of knowledge in operations management and fiscal responsibility. Now I would like to use these skills to help Page County thrive. Specifically speaking, I bring a vast amount of experience developing and being held accountable to operational and capital budgets. I plan to get deeply involved in our county budget to ensure we get the most value for our tax dollars. I have always worked to keep costs at a minimum to survive in the business world — serving as your Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for Page County will be no different. Fiscal responsibility is a must for anyone in public office.
• What is the most pressing issue facing Page County and how would you address it?
Funding for our county. We all realize we live in a small, rural county with limited financial resources. I think we can all agree that we would like to have more amenities and/or services available in our county, but how do we pay for them? I cannot say with any specific knowledge that there is waste, but going through a small “DOGE” exercise similar to what President Trump has undertaken for our country will be well worth the time and effort for our county. We must also ensure that we secure all available non-tax-based funds such as federal and state grants. Once we have ample resources, only then can we tackle our other pressing issues such as improving education, local drug and addiction problems.
• What is the best thing about Page County and how would you maintain or improve it?
Our natural resources. I have been to many places and it’s my opinion that there is no better, more beautiful place than right here in Page County. We need to protect our beauty and rural landscape. This does not mean that I am not pro-growth. I fully support strategic growth and new economic opportunities, but we must first ensure that any development fits within our natural landscape and our culture. It’s up to all of us to safeguard Page County from being taken advantage of by outside influences that have no concern for us or our county.
• Briefly describe a decision you have made in a leadership role and tell why you made that decision.
In my job I make big and small decisions every day, but I want to share a significant personal decision that I think is most relevant and best supports why I am the right candidate. In my career, I have been a highly successful leader and had multiple opportunities to “climb the corporate ladder”. However, typically these offers included relocating. Multiple times I declined these offers and higher paying opportunities simply because of my love and devotion to remain here in Page County. Now that I am in a place in life where I can commit sufficient time and energy to the role, I ask for your vote to be Chairman of the Page County Board of Supervisors and I look forward to humbly serving all of Page County.
Early voting starts Friday, Sept. 19
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For election information visit the Page County Voter Registrar.
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Here and on your FB page, you emphasize the need for obtaining funding prior to implementing services that the county needs, possibly even cutting some
Many counties have embraced data Centers as a way to get quick cash. You do not mention in any statements that I have seen how you would obtain additional money for Page.
Are data centers things you would consider? If not, what else?
Some in the county want to see more and higher priced short term rentals to produce revenue. Is that an option you would pursue?
You talk about concern that the county may be taken over by third parties. Examples please
Thank you
Thank you for your follow-up questions. This is exactly how voters learn more about me and my platform. First off, I am not in favor of large mega-sized data centers. Massive data centers offer little benefit to our county. Other than individuals that may gain from the sale of real estate, gains for Page County would not be worth the loss of farm land, the impact to our scenery and the impact to our rural culture. These massive land and electricity hog data centers are better suited in already developed areas. For the size required, these data centers offer little in terms of employment and the long term revenue basis is questionable. Our utility infrastructure also would need to be significantly increased to support such a project which ultimately could lead to increased utility costs for everyone. Our primary industries in Page County are agriculture and tourism. Large scale data centers will negatively impact both, so I do not support them.
Regarding the concern from third parties, I did not mean to imply any takeover. My concern of outside influence stems from my concern over data centers or similar large scale operations that would forever change our county. If/when we are targeted by a developer seeking to build large scale data centers, we need to be prepared with a unified answer. We cannot let ourselves be taken advantage of from outsiders who are not from here nor share our vision for Page County.
What we need to target for growth is small impact industrial/commercial operations that fit within our current landscape and zoning. Businesses such as Wrangler and Anderson in Luray both represent good, stable employment with good, living wages. There is little impact to our community from their operations and neither pose large volume truck traffic. We need more businesses like these in Page County, especially on the southern end where similar operations have closed over the years. I do not pretend to have all of the answers nor will I make any unsupported promises, but I will always have open ears and open mind to listen to suggestions.
Lastly regarding short term rentals, this is a complicated situation. Being the cabin capital of Virginia, we are well suited and financially supported by revenue from short term rentals. On the flip side, this business has increased the value of homes in our county beyond what is affordable for many people that want to live here. First from the revenue side, this is great business for our county. We already have a high short term occupancy tax in place, double what some other neighboring counties have. Having higher cost places to stay would benefit our county since our occupancy tax is a percentage of the rent, but those decisions are up to investors that would need to decide whether there is sufficient demand for that product. If so, we have already have the tax structure in place to take advantage of that market. To offset the impact to affordable housing, we need our zoning rules to protect local residential areas from the impact of the short term rental market. This has started to take shape, but will need further work. Short term rentals as well as commercial data centers are all part of what our county needs to address thru our planning commission and our zoning laws. I look forward to working with and supporting our planning commission to map out short and long term needs for our county. Thank you, Bucky Thomas
Would you consider a town hall~? I have questions, as I feel others may also.
Certainly. There are already two open candidate forums scheduled. I plan to attend both. The first will be a series of forum discussions for each race over several weeks held by The Page Valley News. Schedules will be posted, but the forum for the Page County Board of Supervisors Chairman race is scheduled for 9/22 at 7 pm at the Stanley Fire Hall. The second forum will also be at the Stanley Fire Hall hosted by The Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley and the Page County Farm Bureau on 10/1. More details for this event are to be announced. Thanks.
PVN would like to note that the THREE candidate forums that we have scheduled for September are NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. This was incorrectly stated above, and all candidates involved were informed about this stipulation by PVN. That means no supporters, no family, no friends, no one except the candidates and the moderator are invited. No questions will be taken outside of prepared questions by the moderator, which will not be shared with the candidates in advance. The topics mentioned above will be addressed. AGAIN, the public is NOT invited to the candidate forum mentioned above being hosted by PVN. We do encourage Letters to the Editor either in support of a candidate, or posing questions to a candidate.
It should also be noted that we do not accept Letters to the Editor from active candidates engaged in an ongoing election.
Thank you for your insightful comments. A few questions
1)Have you looked at the budgets for recent years and the P&L calculations? If so, what do you see that suggests opportunities for DOGE-like cuts? Personnel? Programs? Schools? Some salaries are out of line with state averages. Is this something you would want the board to take on?
2) Have you looked at grants received by the county in recent years? Both Luray and the County received significant funding from Biden programs. With cutbacks at the federal level, how realistic is it to expect availability of federal dollars? Can you suggest avenues to pursue?
3) At a recent presentation by the county economic development director, there was a discussion of barriers to businesses development on numerous sites (low ceiling height, for example, not in accord with current standards) and the overarching problem of no access to natural gas—with very high costs to make it available. What would be your approach to these significant and long-term problems?
4) How would you advise the EDA to handle the industrial-zoned property that they are currently trying to market?
5) the comprehensive plan is generally agreed to be good, and the Planning commission has done a lot of work to update and refine it. Would you support the plan? Or would you want to see changes? If so, where?
Thanks again for taking the time to answer questions
Awhile back we had a local business gearing up to build a “data center” and mentioned there would be up to 90 jobs to operate it.
Well, that might be great, I’d be against it anyway, so I had a letter published in the PN&C which identified one important thing. In the event of war against the United States, data centers would be prime targets to destroy. Think about it.
Thanks for the questions Cathy.
First I would like to thank Mr. Arrington for clarifying the format of the scheduled forum and appreciate him for correcting what I stated. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused.
I have not done a full, deep analysis of past budgets. That would be something done once in office with deeper access and more knowledge of each functional area’s needs and requests. Out of self-interest and more recently in preparation for running for office, I have reviewed publicly shared information to get a better understanding of our budget. I find it interesting to compare our county budget with other counties and think that would be one way of analyzing opportunities (once adjusted for size/population). I come into this role with open eyes, open ears, open mind, applicable experience and strong principles. I have no preset agenda for making cuts. My agenda is simply to get the most out of every dollar available for our county by utilizing the skills I have gained during my career.
Applicable grants are something that I support and would encourage our county to seek out. Being a conservative Republican, I am not an advocate of big government nor big government spending. I would not endorse nor encourage ballooning bureaucratic spending from any level of our government. However, there will be targeted grants that we should seek out. One avenue of opportunity to explore is our proximity to and related support of neighboring federal lands.
The mission of our EDA is a difficult one with our somewhat isolated location. Speaking first hand from experience, running most any industrial operation in Page County is difficult given needed trucking routes crossing mountains. Targeted businesses should be small to medium in size, not overly dependent on high volume trucking needs. Ideally, something that would fit into existing structures but there are limitations to what can use these spaces such as what you referenced with lower ceiling heights. I can speak first hand from the challenges I face as the manager for the Kontoor/Wrangler DC here in Luray. We operate a “modern” distribution center from an older, heavily modified former manufacturing building with low ceilings – but we make it work! I hope that I can use this knowledge and ability to help attract other similar opportunities into the county. Specifically for the industrial zoned property referenced, I have no knowledge of the intentions for this land or any opportunities being considered. My advice would be to carefully consider any potential suitors, fully understand their long term intent and potential impacts to the area before committing to anything.
Related to this topic is the last question regarding our comprehensive planning. I agree, we have a good start. I appreciate the time and effort put forth by the planning commission on what I know was not an easy task. I believe one of the best ways to support affordable housing for locals is by strategically using our planning and zoning to protect residential housing districts from the pressures of short term rental properties – we need both and both can benefit from strategic zoning. We have addressed issues like large scale solar farms with our plan, but we need to ensure we can evolve and adapt as technologies change and new things yet known pose new opportunities or new risks. I look forward to working with and supporting our planning commission with this ever evolving task.
Thank you for your interest and intriguing questions!
Thank you for your answers. I would like tou to be more specific. Budget documents are available, along with minutes of past BOS meetings.
I would like you to indicate where cuts might be made. Schools? Aid to nonprofits? Specific programs? Specific areas of spending?
As an aside, much of the work of the planning commission, led by your opponent in this race, has focused on proactively addressing future technologies such as data centers.
The commission developed very well thought out legal arguments to place conditions on the proposed giant solar factory planned for 340N. Their efforts kept the county out of courts. Other counties that were not as meticulous failed to stop development. We are one of the very few Virginia counties that did not get overrun.
As a personal question, did you attend any hearings on the solar factory applications? Did you provide public comments? I ask because I am interested in the depth and duration of your involvement in county issues
Thank you
How to attract businesses beyond what is being done?
Ditto for affordable housing.
Where specifically would you envision cuts to a budget that is already very thin, especially in view of current federal cutbacks?
Thanks
One other question: I believe you stated that you support the idea of high-priced short-term rentals. Recently, Ms Fox, director of tourism and chair of tourism council and economic development authority, envisioned the county developing to be like Steamboat Springs,CO. Is that a vision you support?
Just to add…the comprehensive plan,developed by the Planning Commission, chaired by Jared Burner, is a 2 volume document of approximately 210 pages that lays out detailed recommendations for land use, housing and industrial development, and economic considerations for the county. It is designed to provide a framework for growth and development over the next 20 years and has had participation of individuals representing all stakeholders in the county.
In my opinion, everyone running for office should be very familiar with this document that represents more than a year of in depth work
I am disappointed that you appear to consider it simply a good start.
Have you actually looked at it?