Glenn Baublitz Jr.

• Age: 46
• Occupation: Self-employed contractor
• Community Roots: Born in Baltimore and has lived in Pulaski for 19 years total
• Affiliations: None
• Education: High school and two years of college

Election index

• Other candidates in the NRV answer your questions

Why should voters vote for you to serve as on Pulaski Town Council?

Glenn Baublitz: Due to my business background. I’ve run a company for 15 years that’s had continual growth for 15 years, which is pretty substantial in today’s market. And I don’t see anyone on the council now that has much business experience, actually running a business. I think it would help the town tremendously having someone that has business knowledge. There is one other person, Joel Buchett, he’s a Realtor, so I’d say he has some business experience.

Rhonda Hodge of Pulaski asks: “What will you do to help the economy in Pulaski and bring in more tourism and business?”

GB: As far as the economy goes, there’s a lot going on with agriculture in the state of Virginia. It’s our largest industry here. Our current economic development director doesn’t see the need … in fact, Congressman [Rick] Boucher had a conference at the college and as far as I know no one from the town even attended it. I think they think that agriculture has to do with cows and corn, and it couldn’t be farther from the truth. There’s a whole lot of things that goes on beside plowing the ground — I’ve contacted Food City about bringing in vendors to form a co-op so that the brokerage firms will actually purchase directly from local farmers. It’s not just for Pulaski, it could be a regional project. I could also help through small businesses. The town actually has a small business course they provide, which is great for someone who knows nothing and gives them a general overview of businesses but doesn’t really prepare them for business. I went through it 10 years ago when they first started that. … Though it was somewhat helpful, I think that they need to have someone who has practical experience in business financing, business development, marketing and taxes. That was one thing that I found they lacked teaching anybody — the taxes and when to file, which is critical. The other thing I wanted to do but the town actually turned this down was to make the town’s office space and buildings more energy efficient. One of the largest things that they could do would be to upgrade their lighting. I’ve done these upgrades. I’ve done auditing. I tried to explain that to them, and they said they looked into it and didn’t find any savings, which tells me that they didn’t look very closely. Another energy saver is the town owns a dam that has an overflow. … The overflow, the water is not being used for anything other than just washed down the creek, but that’s actually just money wasted. It could be bottled through a bottling plant or it could be used for hydroelectric generation. A small plant that has potential for a two-year payback and pretty much could eliminate a large chunk of the town’s electric bill. One of the things I did propose and they actually took a look at is a rotary press for the water filtration plant. They’re spending about $29,000 handling this sludge.

What do you see your role as council member being, asks town resident Jennifer White.

GB: I would say in a leadership role. Right now we don’t have a lot of councilmen that will speak up. Either they’re unfamiliar with the subject they’re talking about at the time or they don’t want to be criticized for it. I think they’re very inactive. I don’t think there’s any leadership there, other than Joel Burchett, although Mr. Worrell has spoken up on several issues, like the water authority. I’m a more proactive councilman than anybody I see up there. I go to the council meetings, and I put forth proposals and solutions, which I don’t normally see.

Kathy Denny of Pulaski wants to know: How do you plan to work with nonprofits to combat the drug and alcohol problem in the community?

GB: Giving the kids something to do, I think that’s paramount. At the moment I’d like to see a trout fishing, fly fishing program for the boys. The boys are the ones that are more likely to get into trouble. If you give them something to do, at least you’ll have an idea where they’re at and what they’re doing and have it be constructive.