Steve H. Huppert (incumbent)

• Age: 63
• Occupation: Retired U.S. Army officer and retired Christiansburg High School guidance counselor
• Community roots: Resident of Christiansburg for more than 30 years
• Affiliations: Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Knights of Columbus, Central Christiansburg Business District Committee, Town of Christiansburg Education Committee
• Education: 1962 graduate of Baker High School in Columbus, Ga. Bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Georgia and master’s degree in education from Virginia Tech.

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• Other candidates in the NRV answer your questions

Steve Huppert: I finished four years on the town council, and when I was elected, I decided I was not just going to be sitting there. Sometime they say what is the definition of a politician and they say a politician is someone who says they’re going to do all this for you and then you don’t hear from them for four years. At the end of four years, they’ll tell you, “If you elect me again, this is what I’m going to do for you.” But I have really tried to stay involved in the position here. One of the things I’ve tried to do is to communicate with the people. I’ve tried to do that and tried to keep them abreast of what’s going on in Christiansburg. And I’ve done that through several different ways. I’ve done several speaking associations here, especially with the aquatic center and things of that nature, and also I’ve written over 35 letters to the editor and columns in The Roanoke Times and the News Messenger concerning what’s going on in Christiansburg. So trying to communicate with the people and telling them what’s going on in the town and keeping them upgraded. I would like to continue that if I was re-elected and, in fact, if I was re-elected I would like to maybe even have a monthly column in the paper called “Inside Christiansburg” that gives people an update on what’s going on. Because sometimes we know what’s going on and we think people do, but people really are not aware of some of the things going on.

First time voter Sarah Hamed, 18, asks: “When will the town ever put in sidewalks uptown? The area is inaccessible for pedestrians.” Coreen Mett, 60, also wonders about foot traffic around the New River Valley Mall area: “My question is how soon are we going to be able to cross [U.S.] 460 as a pedestrian?”

SH: Sidewalks are big things and we do need a lot of additional sidewalks. And the town is working on different areas. I think the top priority right now in regard to sidewalks — of course, you know in the downtown area, we’ve done part of that one block and then the next thing that’s on their list in the downtown area is that block going down toward the town hall. Up around [U.S.] 460 I’m not sure if you know this but we are trying to work on a bridge that’s going to cross 460. It’s going to be part of the Huckleberry Trail. If we get that bridge across, of course it’ll be good for pedestrians, too, and that will be helpful for them. But we realize that there’s so much congestion around the mall area and we’re working on that. And also we’re trying to get the mall people to be involved, too, and have them make it more accessible for the people that are shopping in that area.

Doris Oliver, 74, has a follow-up question to a recent news story about Christiansburg’s failure to follow open meeting mandates in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act: “Do you intend to acquaint yourself with FOIA rules prior to taking office?”

SH: Of course, I’ve been in office for the last four years, but I would like to mention two things here and we are aware. The mayor has brought out several different points here to try to get the public more aware of what’s going on in the town and have it so that they can respond and come to some of these meetings if they would like. The two things that we are doing immediately are on June 3, the town is going to have a information literacy meeting. It’s going to be right after the town meeting, and I would encourage you to attend. This is open for the public. This is open for anyone. Our attorneys are going to go over the Freedom of Information Act, go over the information. It will be good not only for us. They’re doing it for the members of the town council to get them more aware of the rules and things of that nature. But also we’re doing it in the open like that so that people from the town can also take part. We really encourage everybody be there. We’d like to have a full house, and that’s going to be on June 3 right after the meeting. The second thing is, too, we are putting in a new Web site. The new Web site should be in place by the end of September and one of the things we are doing on that is we are going to put in more information to get the public more aware of what’s going on.

Ryane Doyle, 23, is a Florida native who has lived in Christiansburg for the past 1½ years. She asks, “Do you intend to continue attracting retail growth in Christiansburg? What could be done to attract business to the downtown area?”

SH: In the New River Valley Mall here we have really attracted business. In fact, I consider us the hub of Southwest Virginia in our retail and restaurants and hotels in this area. Now speaking downtown, I think that’s a very good question. And that is the main thing. As part of the downtown business committee, I have really worked on several different things here. One of the things that we’re doing here — of course, you can see that we’re trying to revitalize downtown. We’ve put in new sidewalks. We’re going to have a new road in there. We’re going to have new light poles, a new town clock. We’re going to really spruce up downtown, as far as the town can do. And to try to make it better for people to see what’s going on, we’re going to have four days this summer. We call it the summer festival. Starting on May 17, June 14, July 12 and Aug. 23, we’re going to bring in vintage cars and close off the streets for a couple of hours so people can walk through and see downtown how we’ve improved it. And maybe people from outside will be coming in, too, and say, “Boy, look at this area here. I would maybe like to locate a store here or get more involved.” Even some of the people in this area do not realize the potential of this area.

“Will Christiansburg raise real estate taxes as the county plans to do?” Is there some way to maintain tax relief for the elderly citizens?” asks William June Smith, 70. On the subject of taxes, 21-year-old Danielle Akers wants to know if the town “will consider expanding town limits to increase revenue taxes?”

SH: The county is raising taxes. I’m not sure what the figure is. I think it’s 18 cents per $100, concerning real estate taxes there. At this time, the town does not have any ideas of raising taxes. I think one thing I need to bring out, though, is that this is a very challenging time for governments. I just went by the gas station just a few minutes ago and I saw that gas is up to $3.37 per gallon. Of course, with gas prices going up, everything is going to follow that. We are trying to keep the fact the elderly and make it as best we can without raising any fees and holding that back the best we can.