Bothwell lays out priorities for a second term

From Council member Cecil Bothwell’s campaign:

Asheville, NC— For the past four years, Asheville City Councilmember Cecil Bothwell has worked to make Asheville a city that is clean, prosperous, and safe for all its residents and visitors. In a second term on City Council, Bothwell will continue to focus on infrastructure, energy efficiency, and equality for all people, while also listening to community leaders, businesses, and citizens in an effort to make Asheville a better place to live and work.

Bothwell was able to accomplish a great deal in his first term, including the expansion of affordable housing within the City and further development of greenways, bike lanes, and sidewalks. The Councilmember was also a leader in urging the City to adopt its highly successful single-stream recycling program, and he helped to revamp and expand the city transit system. In addition, Bothwell kept a four-year campaign promise by urging Council to pass a Civil Liberties Resolution guaranteeing protection of rights under the Constitution in public policy matters.

In a second term, Bothwell will build on many of these successes. “I’ll continue to work for expansion of multi-modal transportation options, including Sunday transit service,” the Councilmember said. “I will help launch a curbside composting program that will convert food scraps to fertilizer. Meanwhile, I’ll support improvements in urban cleanliness with more trash receptacles and new recycling containers downtown, and an accelerated program of street and gutter sweeping.

Bothwell also plans to expand internal efforts toward energy efficiency, particularly in the city vehicle fleet. He will work towards a greener Asheville by supporting efforts to install solar panels on homes and businesses and has already introduced efforts for AMAZED, a program which would guide Asheville towards becoming a net-zero energy city, in part by helping businesses and homeowners find new ways to create electricity.

“During my first term Asheville, like the rest of our nation, has been dealing with the aftermath of the Great Recession, including the ascension of the Tea Party Republicans now running our state. Yet we have managed to continue Asheville’s trajectory as a progressive beacon in the southeast,” Bothwell said. “In a second term, I will continue this effort to make Asheville the most attractive urban area in the country, a city where business owners and employees want to raise their families.”

Incumbent Cecil Bothwell is running for re-election for another four-year term on the Asheville City Council. Bothwell is an investigative reporter, builder, organic gardener and public servant. He also serves as Council liaison to the Sustainability Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE) and as chair of the Public Safety Committee.