Jeffrey S. Worrell

• Running for: Mayor
• Age: 48
• Occupation: Technician, Appalachian Power Co.
• Community Roots: Lifelong Pulaski resident
• Affiliations: Pulaski councilman for 10 years, member of the board chairman and deacon of First Christian Church in Pulaski and represents town on Peppers Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Authority and Virginia’s First Regional Industrial Facility Authority
• Education: Associate’s degree in electrical technology from New River Community College

Election index

• Other candidates in the NRV answer your questions

Why should voters vote for you to serve as Pulaski’s mayor?

Jeffrey Worrell: I think it would be my experience. I’ve got 10 years on town council, and I think the last few years we’ve made some tremendous progress here with James Hardie building products, Peebles, Magic Mart, Tractor Supply, Hibbetts Sports, Walgreens and CVS. We’ve got a lot going. I think its imperative that we maintain the momentum that we’ve built in the last few years and I think I’m in a position to do that.

Rhonda Hodge of Pulaski asks, what will you do to help the economy in Pulaski and bring in more tourism and business?

JW: I think what I’d like to try — and you have to understand the geography of Pulaski — what I want to try is to concentrate on the areas that have the most potential for development. The town of Pulaski has been moving in a northeastern direction since its inception. The original Main Street was on Valley Road and the current Main Street and now all the development is moving northeasterly out Memorial Drive, Route 11. So I think we need to concentrate on that. We need to be looking at a boundary adjustment or an annexation with the county in order to have more land for development. We need to extend the town development out the Route 99 corridor toward the interstate. We’ve got to establish an interstate presence. We can’t bring the interstate into town, but the town can go to the interstate.

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

JW: You’ve got to be a leader. You’ve got to lead by example. You’ve got to establish a climate of integrity and moral leadership.

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?

JW: We’ve got to reach out to our young people. There’s a lot of people that have a lot of ideas about how we need to reach our young people and activities and things that we need to do with our young people. But before you do that, you’ve got to establish communication with them, you’ve got to reach out to them. We’re trying to establish a Youth Summit in the future, where we can sit down with these young people, where we can talk to them.

With the Youth Summit, we’re going to select a group of young people from our community and sit down and talk to them about what we can do for them, and learn from them.