Don Langrehr

• Age: 50
• Occupation: Radford University education professor
• Community roots: Blacksburg Town Councilman since 2004
• Affiliations: Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Mount Tabor Ruritan Club, New River Valley Living Wage Campaign, Virginia Organizing Project, and Virginia State Reading Association
• Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New Jersey City University; doctorate in literacy education from Florida State University.

Election index

• Other candidates in the NRV answer your questions

Why should residents of Blacksburg vote for you?

Don Langrehr: As an incumbent, I think I’ve demonstrated that I pay particular attention to two probably extremely important issues in town — land use and financial responsibility. In both instances, I view myself more as a resident than as a town council member. I have consistently acted on town council as if I’ve been a resident, rather than as an administrator. And I think that’s what people in town are looking for — a town council member that actually hears them. That actually will look at land-use decisions and say, “How will it impact individuals in this neighborhood?” “How will it affect our residents who want to continue to get across town in 10 minutes, rather than 30 minutes?” “How will it affect individual taxpayers whose costs are going up — water and sewer, garbage collection, real estate property taxes, they continue to go up.” And we know that as a boom town that’s the threat we’re under. I think that the actions I’ve taken over my previous four years dictate that I think in terms of citizen concerns. And I think that’s a really good reason to consider me seriously for re-election.

Jeanne Roper, founding member of the Valley Interfaith Childcare Center, asks: If elected, what could you do about the rapidly decreasing options for childcare in the town and the New River Valley?

DL: The town is taking steps. We are financial supporters of the [Valley Interfaith Childcare Center] daycare for this town. I think also, if we look at future projects, residential development projects, with an eye of how can we integrate day care into those projects, that is a possibility. When I went to grad school, I lived in a community where grad students actually had a day-care center available to them. And that’s something Virginia Tech is lacking in a way — an actual community where married grad students would have access to some day-care facilities. … But I do think Blacksburg is moving in the right direction and will continue to support those kind of day-care goals.

Bijaya and Hara Misra, residents of the Harding Avenue area, say they are concerned that an idea to build, with some federal funds, a 130-home affordable housing project near them could cause problems. They ask: Should council bring a high-density, low-income development to this area where the roads are already burdened with traffic from apartment complexes?

DL: We haven’t gotten the official project proposal yet, so we have to wait to see what’s being proposed. … It’s hard to say as far as traffic impacts what it will have.

But I think because of the proximity to … downtown and [Virginia Tech] campus it’s something that we have to consider because it is on a bus line that would service that area. … I think it would be a project where the residents would take advantage of the proximity, take advantage of the bus line, take advantage of cycling and pedestrian opportunities to Harding [Avenue Elementary] school, to downtown. So there may be a good side to it also. Because really, when we look at smart growth, we have to look at more of an in-fill type of development closer to the core economic areas, rather than farther away. … From an environmental standpoint, if we’re going to look to reduce our carbon footprint, that means getting people closer to work rather than farther away from work. So, I think until the project comes in and we see and we can really measure how it will impact the local roads, it’s tough to make a decision at this point.

Toms Creek basin resident Mary Houska asks: “What is your vision for the Toms Creek basin?”

DL: Currently it’s zoned R-1, rural residential one [one house per acre of land], and I particularly … like that zoning. … It gives us several options for the area. It still respects the rural quality — and we have to realize that’s the last rural area in the town of Blacksburg. But it also gives us an option to look at possibilities such as more clustered housing developments. That zoning mandates 50 percent open space for any development there. So as a starting point, that’s a great figure. As a starting point, it’s properly zoned the way it should be and it can only be improved upon from there. Of course, people would be interested in the sewer situation. I think as the Village at Toms Creek [subdivision] has demonstrated, we can use alternative sewer systems for that area that will work very efficiently. And I think that serves as a good model for the rest of that area.

Retired Virginia Tech Vice President for Multicultural Affairs Ben Dixon asks: As a council member, what will you do to encourage equity, access and inclusion of people from other countries, people living on lower incomes and other minorities?

DL: That question I’d like to approach … in terms of economic integration. Because right now, because Blacksburg is informally recognized as a boom town, what happens in boom towns is that those of privilege have an easier time living here than those that aren’t privileged. And what we have to look at is how do we integrate people from other socioeconomic statuses into our town. And as the town becomes more expensive, it also becomes more exclusive. So how do we make it more inclusive? And I think really promoting working family housing in town is one way of doing it. It makes housing available to people who are from other countries and who don’t have a firm financial foundation in this country yet, for minorities, for low-income people it makes living in Blacksburg more available. We’re taking some good steps now with our CDGB [Community Development Block Grant] money, really making some housing available so people can be part of our community. I think we can take more steps with regards to offering developers density bonuses if they offer lower-cost housing.