Hello Worthington folks. I’m running for re-election to the Planning Board. I’ve been on the Board for three years, and hope to continue doing this important volunteer work for the community.
A little bit about me: My husband and I raised three wonderful children in a suburban area, and then felt the pull to move to the country to have more land and pursue my passion for growing food and sustainable living. I am a strong advocate of protecting and preserving our natural resources. Worthington’s pristine forests, viewsheds and waterways were the main things that drew me here in 2017. I live on a lovely ‘homestead’ in West Worthington with huge vegetable gardens, orchard, chickens, ducks and sheep. Preserving a rural way of life is one of my guiding principles on the Planning Board.
Professionally, the last fifteen years of my career I worked for community non-profits on programs designed to help small towns achieve their quality-of-life goals. From 2016-2022 I worked at Hilltown Community Development as the Director of Community Programs. My portfolio of grant-funded programs included Senior Transportation, Arts & Culture, and Local Farm and Food Systems. I started the FRTA van service Hilltown Easy Ride, the Hilltown Open Studio Tour and the Hilltown Mobile Market. My approach was always one of listening carefully to the community’s needs and then developing programs and finding funding to meet those needs. I take this same community-driven approach to my volunteer role on the Planning Board; listening carefully and acting with thoughtful integrity to do the best I can for my town.
Recently, with development pressure from large-scale industrial solar, the time commitment and controversial nature of these projects have brought unforeseen challenges to the Planning Board work. The issue highlighted how vulnerable we are to outside development pressure, in part because volunteer boards by their nature primarily react to applications coming before them, rather than seeing trends coming and keeping our bylaws up-to-date to meet new things on the horizon. We have begun the work of updating our bylaws to better protect our water resources, environmentally sensitive areas and to maintain local control as much as possible in a difficult regulatory environment.
I ask that you re-elect me to this position so I can continue the work of updating our bylaws. I promise that every meeting I attend, and decision I make, I will try to represent the people of Worthington with care, integrity and deep commitment to the town.
With gratitude,
Kate Bavelock
