CECILE NEWCOMB

SUSAN ANDERSON

KRISHA CHACHRA

JOHN BUSH

| Sharla Bardin

sharla.bardin@roanoke.com, 381-1669

BLACKSBURG -- So, it's been five long months or more of campaigning, meeting residents, answering questions at forums and coffee gatherings and hoping that voters will see you as the best fit for town council.

Election Day finally arrives, the results come in and you win the seat.

Hard part is over, right?

Not so much.

Now, the winners in the Blacksburg Town Council race say they are ready to work to put their goals for the town into action when they take office in January.

Voters on Tuesday chose incumbent Susan Anderson and newcomers Krisha Chachra, Cecile Newcomb and John Bush in the town's first November election.

The four were among the top vote-getters in each of the 10 Blacksburg precincts. Mayor Ron Rordam, who ran unopposed Tuesday, also will continue on the council, along with Leslie Hager-Smith and Don Langrehr.

Rordam said he looks forward to working with the new crop of council members.

"I think every time you have new people that come on board they bring new ideas and new perspectives with them," he said. "I think they'll bring a freshness and a vibrancy that's always good and I'm very excited about it."

Another change for the council is that it will have its first female majority. Chachra and Newcomb will join Anderson and Hager-Smith on the seven-person body.

Also, Chachra, who is Indian American, is thought to be the first nonwhite member on the council.

"I never thought about my win in that way, but I'm proud to represent a community that sees the value in electing people from different backgrounds, ages and viewpoints," she said in an e-mail.

Chachra's parents immigrated from India and she was born in Blacksburg.

This year's election involved 10 candidates on the ballot for the four at-large seats. Resident Carol Smith, who voted in Tuesday's election, said she thinks that the people who ran for council care about the community. She said Tuesday that no matter who won, she hopes "the council can work together."

The winners also share her sentiment.

Getting to work

The newly elected members said this week they now must incorporate their goals into their council service, as well as address some of the concerns and issues they heard on the campaign trail.

Anderson, who has served on the council since 2006, said she hopes to continue to put her energy and passion to work for Blacksburg.

"I think that this combination of the new council with our current council members will be well positioned to just help Blacksburg thrive, and I'm excited to be a part of that team," she said.

"I think Blacksburg is a progressive community. It's a community that wants to be sustainable, wants to be incredibly livable, wants good recreational facilities and good services for its citizens. ... And I think that the people spoke [on Tuesday] about who they thought could help make that happen."

Anderson said she also heard concerns from residents while campaigning, such as overoccupancy in some of the town's residential areas where too many unrelated people live in one home. Sometimes it involves college students and sometimes not, she said.

Bush said his experience as a designer and architect can be beneficial in town council business.

He also said he thinks residents want places to shop, including expanded retail opportunities, and that "people also want new development to be respectful of the neighborhoods and adequate buffers and transition areas between neighborhoods and commercial zones."

Bush said he also wants to work toward more regional initiatives with the surrounding localities, such as with the expansion of trails.

Chachra said her goals for her council service include being a "consensus builder" and she is excited about working with the other council members.

Chachra has also campaigned to establish a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly downtown and to increase retail options to help offset residential property taxes in the town. She also has said she wants to support programs that attract and retain young professionals to the area.

Newcomb said she thinks she brings to the council a perspective from families and small business owners. Newcomb, a mother of two, works part time as a certified Home Energy Rating System rater and is the business director of Energy Check.

She also said she "hopes to get rid of the divisiveness in town and bring people together to work on solutions."

Newcomb has said she thinks she offers a balanced approach and has a sincere desire to bring a spirit of cooperation so that the town, residents and business representatives can work together for common goals, rather than against each other.

She said during her campaign that she wants to address the "divisiveness that has occurred in the last few years over development decisions in Blacksburg."

Those decisions have included battling development of the Toms Creeks basin, fighting developers of the First & Main retail center all the way to the state Supreme Court to prevent a big-box retailer from locating to the site, and denying a request by Sonic to put a restaurant at the same development before a lawsuit was filed.

One of the biggest development items that may be coming for the council is the former Blacksburg Middle School site, which the county is set to transfer to town ownership in the next year.

Chachra campaigned with two other candidates urging a more balanced approach to development and has said she supports calculated growth that diversifies the town's economic base. She also has said she is pro-growth but doesn't want rampant, unmeasured growth.

Anderson, meanwhile, campaigned with Bush and Newcomb, with all three noting the importance of sustainability. Anderson has said that growth should be sustainable and that smart growth is growth that doesn't sacrifice community livability.

Bush has said that growth should meet the needs of residents now, while also making sure that the future generation can meet their needs and that the town's comprehensive plan is a great guide for town officials to follow. And Newcomb has said she wants to see mixed-use developments and to keep new development near existing infrastructure to avoid sprawl.

A little advice

Rordam said his goal as mayor is to find out the passions of the newly elected members for the town and, with the council's help, determine "how do we help each individual realize those goals and help them accomplish them."

One example is to "talk a little more with them and look at how we fit those skills and desires into our setup of advisory groups," he said.

Rordam, who was first elected to the council in 1996, also has some friendly advice for the newcomers.

"Ask questions [and] listen an awful lot," he said. "I think that it's always good to hear all perspectives before reacting."

Rordam also suggests that the new members get to know more about the town's departments, the staff in them and the departments' functions.

Being on council is a serious responsibility but he also said he hopes the newcomers will take time to enjoy the experience.

"Laugh and have fun," he said, and "just enjoy the process."