Campaign sign garden really coming along

I came home from work yesterday afternoon to find my first campaign sign, compliments of incumbent Mayor Daune Gardner. The initial piece to my earlier discussed campaign sign garden.

Mayoral challenger Lisa Thornton is set to drop one off as well and I'll graciously accept a sign from any Waxhaw candidate, so that means you Gary Underwood, Martin Lane, Phillip Gregory Sean Poccia, and Mike Stewart. Don't be a square and stand in the way of my artistic vision!

If you'd like to increase your presence in the campaign sign garden and have multiple unique signs, you can bring one of each if you'd like.

Campaign sign garden

So far no signs are in my yard, but one candidate has offered to drop one off. If a candidate wants to donate the campaign sign garden (mentioned here), drop me an email and I can send you my address. (Or you can just look it up in the Waxhaw GIS database, I guess, but that might be considered just a tad creepy.)

If the campaign sign garden does come to fruition, it may, nay will, be my greatest visual artistic accomplishment. That's not saying a lot but it is what it is.

So if you want local politicians to contribute a sign, I suggest contacting them to have one delivered post haste. They can't ignore the people forever.

#OccupyWaxhaw, anyone?

Local campaigns

Some more election-related observations:

* In my earlier observations, I noted that Lisa Thornton was the greenest candidate since I hadn't seen her signs out and about. But she's now passed the torch to Sean Poccia, supposed candidate for the town board, the now greenest candidate since he appears to be the only remaining Waxhaw candidate without political signs.

* Per Brian Carlton at the Union County Weekly, all the local candidates will be completing a questionnaire that should hopefully run next week. That should be interesting in getting to know all the candidates and especially the lesser known candidates.

* Lisa Thornton plans to provide the Union County Weekly with a introductory column like the incumbent's that ran in earlier issues. Will it run this Friday? We shall have to wait and see.

* The idea to have a campaign sign garden in my yard popped into my head today, perhaps much to my wife's and neighbors' chagrin. It's probably been done before, but I thought it sounded like a neat idea, especially since I've never ever had a single campaign sign in my yard before.

Of course, I'd need to get my hands on signs from all the candidates. Do candidates normally have enough signs to donate to the cause or do they essentially become a pseudo-currency around this time? From what I can tell, this would not violate the town's campaign sign ordinance (PDF) in any way. If any candidates want to donate a unique sign to the garden, drop me an email.

* My kids have taken to pointing out campaign signs as we drive. They made a point to tell me there was a Daune Gardner sign in our neighborhood the other day. I can only imagine how excited they'll be to see their first Sean Poccia sign.

UPDATE 10/20: Fixed two typos.

Christmas Show & Fundraiser tonight

The Waxhaw Arts Council is having a Christmas Show and fundraiser tonight to raise money to be used throughout the course of the year.


Visit the Facebook page of the event to get all the details if you're planning on attending. Per Donna Frasca:

This is open to the public. This function is part of Waxhaw’s celebration of the arts – First Friday Art Crawl and celebration of the revision and fast growing Waxhaw Arts Council with a Christmas Sale, Party & Raffle.

A percentage of any sales to the artists and the profit from the raffle will go to help the Waxhaw Arts Council raise money to have future functions free to the public in Waxhaw, including educational programs to school children & public in the Waxhaw/Marvin/Wesley Chapel area.

There will be over twenty-five painters, photographers, potters, sculptors, printers, musicians, etc. participating in this show. Also, you will get a chance to see the new “Bean & Belle” art studio first hand. Jennifer Host Williams teaches classes to children and hosts “art parties” for different functions.

You may email any questions on Facebook ---Waxhaw Arts Council or call Lambeth Marshall, 704-843-5060.

I just wonder where the Waxhaw Arts Council was when I was working on my campaign sign garden. Maybe their input could have turned an ordinary campaign sign garden into an extraordinary one.

In other Waxhaw Arts Council news, John Anderson had an article in the Charlotte Observer about the Waxhaw Arts Council, including detailing the new leadership.

The new leadership for 2012 includes:

President: Scott Bland.

Vice Pres: Carolyn Carroll.

Secretary: Lambeth Marshall, with Lori Sanderson and Linda Dyer as backups.

Treasurer: Lambeth Marshall, with Missy Rose as backup.

In addition, committees were reaffirmed and the leadership established as follows: Social Media and Design, Donna Frasca (chairman), Gina Karpathakis, Verna Witt; Event Coordinators, Carolyn Carroll (chairman), Lori Sanderson (co-chair), Ann Tanzy, Linda Dyer, Verna Witt, Lambeth Marshall; Business Advisers, Consultations with Cathy Murphy, Barbara Faulk (Union County Arts Council), Daune Gardner (Waxhaw mayor) and Melissa Brana (CPCC Marketing); Advertising: Donna Frasca.

Read the whole thing.

Another campaign sign

I may have maxed out the sign garden with a week to go in the election.

I got Mike Stewart's this weekend so I now have every candidate except Martin Lane and Gary Underwood. If I get any more, excellent. If not, it was a valiant effort. Although I've got my eye on some of those fancy banners; they'd make a fine addition to the garden.

Although my kids weren't quite as understanding. We were driving home today and my youngest asked "Why won't Martin Lane let us have a sign?" I don't know; I just don't know.

All kidding aside, I was really asked that question so the kids are getting a kick out of the signs. And for the record Martin did say we could have a sign, but I imagine he forgot in the hubbub of daily life which I imagine is only more amplified during election season.

On a side note, Mike Stewart actually stopped by the house to talk with me on Saturday. We couldn't speak real long since I was battling a cold, but he seemed like a pretty straightforward candidate worthy of your vote.

EDIT: fixed typo

Campaign sign coda

As promised, below you'll find a couple pictures of the campaign sign garden. As mentioned in an earlier post, I had to get a little creative with Gary Underwood.


Using everything I learned from all those MacGyver episodes as a kid, I jerry-rigged a bendy straw, packing tape, and the Gary Underwood flyer into a small campaign sign.


We originally planned to move the signs around just to mix it up from time to time, but that plan fell through for the most part. There was one or two reorganizations, but we all agreed we liked them in a line as shown. While it may not be Waxhaw Arts Council good, it's not too shabby. Is there a better piece of living political art in Waxhaw?

A couple art hipsters walked by one day. After declaring it "eerily bold yet arrestingly subversive," they went on to describe it as an impressive piece of folk art that "fused scandal with nature, signifying death yet still paying tribute to the thin line of rebirth; a startling exclamation tattooed onto the struggling soul of small-town Waxhaw. Love the bendy straw!"

I shrugged my shoulders and went back to raking up my leaves. We'll probably take it down tonight.

Letters supporting the new guys

Out with Martin Lane and Phillip Gregory, in with Mike Stewart and Sean Poccia. Or so says a couple letters recently published in the Enquirer-Journal.

Here's a selection for the letter supporting Mike Stewart, an unknown to me:

Mike is new to Waxhaw Politics, which is a blessing in disguise. Needless to say, it is refreshing to know he isn’t part of the good ole’ boy system or “politics as usual” that seems to be the norm in Waxhaw. Mike Stewart is quite intelligent with a strong dynamic personality and gentle soul that truly cares about the heart and soul of Waxhaw, the PEOPLE. Mike takes pride in being part of his community and is ready and willing to go the extra mile to work together with the people, board members and town staff to bring a better government to Waxhaw. Mike has fresh ideas to (1) encourage smaller businesses to come to Waxhaw, (2) STOP wasteful spending, (3) lower taxes, (4) have a smaller government, (5) encourage and initiate transparency, and most importantly (6) ensure appropriate actions are taken according to what the citizens of Waxhaw bring to the board for consideration.

Here's the one supporting newcomer Sean Poccia:

I met Sean Poccia at a meeting and greet and WOW but he is dynamic. Sean is running for town commissioner. New blood, this is what Waxhaw needs and he has it all. He is energetic, objective, analytical and the person to vote for.

Read the whole thing.

Is it safe to assume that neither has any artistic vision since neither Mike Stewart nor Sean Poccia have contributed a campaign sign to my artsy campaign sign garden? Probably not.

Heartache

I got an email today from 'til-now-elusive town board candidate Sean Poccia and I'm sad to say that there appears to be no such thing as a "green" candidate in Waxhaw anymore. Sean has informed me that his campaign signs are now in and have started going up around town.

I'm still waiting for the first Waxhaw candidate to offer up a campaign sign for the proposed campaign sign garden I've yet to speak with my wife about. Could Sean be the first? The mayor or Lisa Thornton? Another? I'm on pins and needles here.

On another note, Sean provided me with his website, so if you'd like to learn a little more about him, pay it a visit. See here for links to the other candidates' pages I'm aware of.

Campaign sign garden status

When I left for work this morning, I was still holding at two campaign signs - one from Daune Gardner and one from Lisa Thornton.

I dashed off a quick email to Sean Poccia earlier today and there are apparently two unique Sean Poccia signs in my yard now as well. What can we garner from this? That Sean Poccia is a man who likes to get things done at least as far as it concerns placating local bloggers and the strange artistic demands that come with them.

Martin Lane planned to contribute as well and I've got emails out to Phillip Gregory and Mike Stewart too. I also emailed Gary Underwood, but he doesn't have any currently available.

On the neighborhood front, a representative of the homeowner's association knocked on my door to tell me that the signs couldn't be as close to the road as they were so I had to move them back. I put up quite the fight, screaming something about free speech and flailing my arms and whatnot. Actually, I was packing for a Cub Scout camping trip at the time, so some might say I was as meek as a kitten in agreeing to move them closer to the house.

He did mention that the signs weren't really allowed at all; the lack of political free speech by the HOA seems a little strange, but maybe this is par for the course as far as HOAs are concerned. I suppose I'll have to dig up the HOA contract one of these days and dig into it a bit. Time-permitting, of course.

Parks & Rec Master Plan meeting tomorrow

Coinciding with First Friday, the final Parks & Rec Master Plan meeting will occur at the Waxhaw Woman's Club on Friday per a Facebook post.

Parks and Rec Master Plan meeting Friday, November 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Waxhaw Woman's Club. Come give us your ideas and enter to win prizes donated by local merchants!

Raffle Prizes: 1) A Snap Fitness Membership, Group Ex Trial, A Smoothie and T-shirt.
2) Four hours of garden services for your edible landscape provided by The Garden Growers. They will design, perform maintenance, troubleshoot or build an organic kitchen garden for you. A $100 value.

So while you're walking around town for First Friday, don't forget to stop by and share your opinion.

Hopefully upgrades over at Nesbit Park (behind Kensington Elementary) will be a frequent request by those who stop in. Besides getting some lights for the ball fields over there, more parking is essential. They removed some of the parking down near the soccer fields due to safety concerns. With three new fields (2 baseball and 1 multipurpose) on the way, it will be important to upgrade the parking.

If you feel similarly, please stop by and let them know how important the issue is to you. And sign up for the aforementioned raffles while you're there.

General election thoughts

Just a few miscellaneous last minute campaign thoughts that didn't seem to fit in elsewhere. I figured I'd get these off my chest before voting is over, but here we are at 8.30pm. So in no particular order:

* The addition of Gary Underwood into the mayoral race will benefit incumbent Daune Gardner the most. She will get the incumbent vote and Lisa and Gary will somehow split the anti-incumbent vote.

* Predictions: I think Daune Gardner wins the race for mayor for the aforementioned reasons. As for commissioners, I think Sean Poccia wins one spot mainly because all the Daune supporters will vote for her preferred candidate. As for the other slot, I'm not really sure. I think all three are good board candidates, but I'll give it to the more visible incumbent, Martin Lane. Bear in mind, I'm no political prognosticator, but those are my guesses. (NOTE: These predictions were made earlier in the day before any totals are in.

* A question: why was the campaign for mayor so much more heated than the board races? They seemed almost chummy in comparison.

* The campaign sign garden is officially complete at this time. I got signs from all the candidates except Gary Underwood. So I had to improvise. I will get a picture up time-permitting.

Beyond Waxhaw: Nearby development

A couple development-related items of note on the way to Waxhaw. Many commuters surely have noticed them already but for those who haven't:

* An new Aldi is going up near Young's Garden Center in Lancaster County. I don't think I've ever been to one, mainly because I always figured driving to the Monroe Aldi would essentially negate any savings gained. Not that it's closer (and on the route home for many), it seems like a good place to stretch your dollar.

When the building first started going up, I just assumed it was going to be a CVS or Walgreens because local development seems to suggest you can never have enough drug stores. Needless to say, I was happy to be wrong.

* Heading west out of Waxhaw on Highway 75, there's been some land tucked between Highway 75 and the railroad tracks that's been getting graded for quite some time. And according to the sign that showed up recently, it will eventually become Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church. The church appears to still be a long way off though, but when completed, it will surely become the closest Catholic church to Waxhaw.

Before the alcohol referendum passed, I though this would've been an ideal location to open a pub. Right next to the tracks with a van to safely transport Waxhaw denizens back and forth. Good thing for Our Lady of Grace that I had neither a more fully thought-out plan involving little more than a bar, railroad tracks, and a van service nor the seed money to get it off the ground. What can I say? I'm a dreamer.