Emmitsburg -- Four candidates for commissioner positions offered their thoughts on the town's growth, infrastructure and budget issues at a forum Tuesday night.Incumbent commissioners Joyce Rosensteel and Cliff Sweeney will vie for seats on the board with Carolyn Miller and Tim O'Donnell at the Sept. 29 election.
The candidates are competing for two of the town's five commission seats.
A fifth candidate, Jennifer Crampton, has dropped out of the race.
About a dozen people gathered at town hall to hear what the candidates had to say.
Rosensteel, a commissioner for six years and retired City of Frederick employee, said the town's growth will be guided by a comprehensive plan under consideration.
She said she would push for an adequate public facilities ordinance that would make developers pay for improvements to infrastructure.
Major roads in town, largely controlled by the state, will have to give way to better alternatives, she said.
"In order to alleviate some of the transportation issues we must implement safer alternate connector routes," she said.
O'Donnell, a Frederick County teacher, said he would use his experience on the town's planning and parks and recreation commissions to guide thoughtful decisions.
He said the town must grow proportionately but traffic should stay on Main Street.
"If we're diverting traffic away from Main Street, we're diverting business away from Main Street," he said.
O'Donnell said business opportunities could be found in a relationship with nearby Mount Saint Mary's University. He also said low-impact environmental tourism could work to bring more commerce to town.
With the budget, O'Donnell said the realities of employee cuts and furloughs need to be weighed seriously.
"I think we have to prioritize what our needs are," he said.
Sweeney, a town commissioner for 12 years, said there are creative ways to cut the town's budget if needed. He said that would include him giving his salary back.
He agreed that the town needs to adopt an adequate public facilities ordinance for growth.
"I consider Emmitsburg a smartly grown community, we haven't grown out of proportion and I hope we never do," he said.
But he said improvement of the town's water and sewer system would allow larger companies to come to the area when the time is right.
Carolyn Miller, a teacher at Emmitsburg Elementary School who serves on the parks and recreation commission, said she wants to focus on keeping the town "clean and green."
The town's growth strategy should involved attracting people who want to live in Emmitsburg for a long time, she said.
"I think we really need to keep all the utilities and things like that to go with what we already have and improve on them," she said. "We do need growth, it just has to go at a slower pace."
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