Falmouth District voters in Stafford will have a new county supervisor next year as they choose in November between the incumbent’s handpicked successor and a current planning commissioner.
Falmouth Supervisor Meg Bohmke announced in April that she would not seek a fourth term this fall after also previously serving on the Stafford School Board.
Bohmke, a Republican and the longest-serving current supervisor, endorsed businessman Michael Catell. He will face Stafford Planning Commissioner Kecia Evans, a Democrat.
Catell has lived in Falmouth for more than two decades. He previously sought local office in his native Pennsylvania but was unsuccessful.
The GOP nominee said recently that he had known Bohmke for a few years and then worked closely with her on projects for the Rotary Club of Stafford.
She asked Catell to be her successor, and several months passed before he decided to officially accept the offer.
Catell said voters should elect him because he has experience in what he called “community development” from a business perspective. He has been in communications, marketing and revenue development for nonprofits regionally and nationally for 30 years.
Those organizations had missions, Catell said, and he aims to now focus on another mission: serving the county generally and Falmouth residents specifically from a “balanced perspective in terms of government.”
“The government has a role. Always has, always will,” he said. “But the people, most importantly, give the power to the government.”
He pointed to several issues facing the Falmouth District, including taxes and spending and obstacles to economic development.
On taxes and spending, Catell noted that the majority of local revenue that funds the county government comes from property taxes. He said he would work to diversify the tax base, which leads to economic development.
Catell said many people have told him there’s a lot of red tape that businesses must make their way through when dealing with the county government.
“Red tape discourages businesses from coming into this county, and when they do come in, more unfortunately, it delays the completion of projects,” he said.
He said he would work with county staff to cut red tape “without going against health, safety or welfare.”
Stafford needs a balance in its business portfolio, Catell said. That might mean data centers, which are projected to bring in a lot of revenue, but also other operations that would create more jobs in the county, reducing residents’ need to commute to jobs elsewhere.
On data centers, facilities that house computer systems used for data storage and processing, Catell said Stafford needs to be cautious.
“I am not against data centers, but my position is that it must be very carefully examined,” he said.
During county budget talks this year, supervisors also talked about creating a revenue-sharing agreement with the school system that would devote a specified percentage of tax money to education each year.
Catell said he would be interested in looking at this as a possibility for Stafford.
Kecia Evans
Evans agreed.
Kecia Evans
“I support exploring a revenue-sharing agreement between the Board of Supervisors and the School Board,” she said recently. “It’s ensuring predictability — that’s long-term funding that allows for strategic planning, and it avoids the pitfalls of reactive budgeting.”
Though Evans lives in the Falmouth District, she’s the Aquia District representative on the Planning Commission. She’s also chaired the county’s Board of Zoning Appeals and Parks and Recreation Commission, and the School Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee.
Evans said Bohmke appointed her to the Parks and Recreation panel, while Board of Supervisors Vice Chairwoman Tinesha Allen picked her for the BZA and Supervisor Monica Gary selected her for the Planning Commission.
“If you look at it, I had three different people from three different districts with three different political backgrounds who trusted me to be the voice,” she said.
If elected, she said she would be the first Black person to hold the Falmouth District position. Evans previously ran unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates.
She said she wants the district to be more than just a bedroom community.
“Basically, I just want Falmouth to be more than just a place that we sleep — and Stafford period. It’s not even just Falmouth. It’s just Stafford period,” Evans said.
Evans also said she wants to bring more commercial development to the county to lessen the tax burden on homeowners.
Like Catell, she said she would like to see more fine-dining restaurants in the county, as well.
And, she added, too many residents have to go to other places for recreation, which means they’re spending their tax dollars elsewhere, too.
She said that the biggest issue in Falmouth is population growth, and that the county needs to make sure infrastructure is keeping up with the large numbers of new residents.
On data centers, she said they’re necessary but need to be regulated.
“I don’t think that, you know, the data centers should be in someone’s backyard, because just like I wouldn’t want to see a data center in my backyard, I would want like a buffer or something blocking it,” Evans said. “And we have to respect that.”
Overall, she said she wants to be an advocate for the community.
“As Stafford County grows, you know, I want to make sure that no one is left behind, and so that means fighting for everyone: so our schools, fighting for economic development, as well as our citizens and making sure that we have fair taxes across the board,” Evans said.
