Edward Yerha has ably served on the Cary Town Council since 2012 and was a proud proponent of the Cary Community Plan the town council passed earlier this year. He argues that Cary is headed in the right direction. But in the years to come, he says, town officials must “make effective use of Cary’s dwindling supply of undeveloped land” and encourage a variety of housing options to increase affordability.
His opponents are George McDowell, a retired lawyer, and Jeff Alan De Deugd, about whom we could find little information. McDowell’s top objective, according to his website, is to “properly plant one million additional trees” within Cary’s borders.
In his responses to our questionnaire, McDowell fleshes out that single-minded platform: “My detractors pigeonhole me as a one-trick pony, concerned only with trees, and ignoring the facts that trees purify our air and water, anchor our soil, greatly reduce stormwater runoff, and pull massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it,” he writes. “In addition, they enhance our quality of life through increased beauty of our surroundings and by inducing greater psychological well-being.”
McDowell raises important points, to be sure. But there’s a reason a host of Cary officials as well as state representative Gale Adcock and Wake County commissioners Sig Hutchinson and Erv Portman are supporting Yerha. He’s a smart, consensus-building public servant who, in the words of Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, “understands the complexities of blending environmental interests with business interests, has the experience and integrity to do the right thing at the right time, and is not afraid to stand up for what he believes.”
While the town council should pay attention to McDowell, we endorse Yerha.
