Seven candidates are seeking three available seats on the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors this year.
Several candidates filed to run shortly before the qualifying period ended last Friday at noon, including a former ITID supervisor seeking a return to office.
The race for Seat 3, currently held by Supervisor Ralph Bair, is now a three-way race, with Alan Ballweg and David Bradley both challenging the incumbent. That race will start with a primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 26. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will advance to the general election.
The races for Seat 1 and Seat 5 have two candidates each and will be held at the general election in November.
Former Supervisor Mike Erickson has thrown his hat into the ring for Seat 1, challenging the incumbent, Supervisor Jennifer Hager, who is seeking a second term.
The race for Seat 5 had a late switch when candidate Enrique Bassas dropped out of the race, replaced by Betty Argue, who is now the sole candidate challenging ITID President Carol Jacobs in her bid for a third term.
SEAT 3 — Ballweg, who has been involved for the past year with a flood protection task force organized by County Commissioner Jess Santamaria, said he was driven partly by that to get involved.
“Tropical Storm Isaac first motivated my involvement in community affairs,” he said. “I believe the flooding we experienced did not have to be as severe as it was. More recently, I have been involved in opposing development in the area, in particular what I call ‘traffic storm Minto,’ as well as other large local projects.”
Since Isaac, Ballweg said he has regularly participated at ITID meetings, as well as dozens of other top-level meetings with county and South Florida Water Management District officials and engineers focused on both drainage and development.
He believes that key issues in the race are honest government, preservation of the quality of life and the freedoms that Acreage residents enjoy, and flood prevention.
Ballweg, 54, who is married with no children, has lived in The Acreage since 2000. Prior to that, he spent much his younger years living in Europe. “I speak four languages,” he said. “I am a graduate of Stanford University. I worked mainly in electrical engineering on large international projects, and also telemetry systems, which gives me a good knowledge of drainage and flood control systems.”
His vision for the district is to have dedicated people acting for the best interests of the residents and to preserve the quality of life in the area.
“Indian Trail needs to make more careful decisions on issues that could have a long-term impact,” Ballweg said. “Many of the issues we’re having with overdevelopment in the area could have been avoided by a more factual approach when we gave Palm Beach County rights to several of our major roads. If those rights were granted with conditions that gave us more control, we would not have to confront many of the problems we are now facing.”
He believes that until Isaac, ITID did not press the SFWMD hard enough for increased drainage. He said he has been working with the SFWMD and the Florida Fish & Conservation Commission to get drainage access to the state-owned Moss property, a 2,300-acre tract that Ballweg believes will give ITID enough drainage capacity to prevent another severe flooding event.
“I think we’re just a few weeks away from final approval to discharge onto that large property in the event of an emergency,” he said. “We did not discharge onto the Moss property during Isaac because of permit issues, but those are about to be resolved. Indian Trail needs to think about these issues before we have problems, not after.”
Ballweg said Bair and Bradley are excellent candidates and he wishes them the best, adding that voters will decide who they want to represent them.
“The more interest the better,” he said. “My wish is to serve the residents, not my own interests.”
Standing on his 16-year record as a supervisor, Bair pointed out that he recently obtained his Certified District Official certificate from the Florida Association of Special Districts, as did ITID President Carol Jacobs and Supervisor Michelle Damone.
“That means I’ve gone through all the classes that I have to take for how to properly run a special district, run board meetings and ethics,” he said. “Those are things you have to do to properly perform your duties in office.”
Bair added that it is important to connect with other districts to see how they do things so ITID does not “reinvent the wheel.”
“You learn a lot at these meetings,” he said.
Bair noted that the ITID board gets surprised with unexpected challenges such as Tropical Storm Isaac, but it does the best it can.
“You can’t just concentrate on one subject, like Minto West. You have to be able to run the whole district,” said Bair, who hopes to get more than 50 percent of the vote on Aug. 26 to avoid a November runoff.
Bradley said he thinks both Ballweg and Bair will be tough opponents.
“My strategy doesn’t really change all that much, except the timetable is pushed up,” Bradley said. “Now we’ve got to get aggressive in getting my name out there.”
Bradley, a fireman with Pratt & Whitney and an Acreage resident since 1990, said he has a following, but that his challenge will be in making them aware of the August primary date.
“I’ll have to reach out to them,” he said. “It will not only be about getting my name out there and talking about the issues, but also informing people of the date coming up.”
Bradley is also concerned about the significantly smaller voter turnout in the primary. “That throws the percentages off a lot. Just a small percentage of voters can significantly change your fate,” he said. “It’s about having a good turnout on primary day.”
SEAT 1 — Erickson, who will face Hager in November, said he wants to focus on issues rather than personality conflicts.
“I think I can make a difference,” he said. “I’ve stayed involved in the community after getting off the board four years ago. Some of the issues are still there. Other issues have been taken care of, and new issues have developed.”
Erickson said the approval process does not address the real issue regarding Minto West.
“The real issue is not houses,” he said. “The real issue is the impact on the houses that already exist. And how do you measure those impacts? They’re traffic, they’re lifestyle, they’re all the things that come with development.”
Erickson said the problem with the Minto application for more intensity than it is currently allowed is what will be the Palm Beach County Commission’s yes-or-no vote on an issue that calls for interested parties sitting down and resolving problems.
Hager said she is confident she will be re-elected.
“I think I have made myself a positive reputation,” she said. “I’m consistent with how I vote. I think that my constituents understand that I’m looking out for their best interests. People like me put me there. I really work hard to protect the rural character of The Acreage and our lifestyle. If that means standing up to overdevelopment, then so be it.”
She said she will work with Minto if and when it comes to that.
“The problem that I have is their recent demands for an increase in density and intensity, and I’m not OK with that,” Hager said.
She also wants to maintain honesty in government. “That means open everything to anyone who wants to see it and operate in the sunshine.”
Hager said the ITID board has done a lot to improve infrastructure, and she wants that to continue.
SEAT 5 — Argue, who qualified on Friday for the seat occupied by Jacobs, said she wants to protect the lifestyle that residents of The Acreage enjoy.
“I want honest government, and I want to make sure that we’re protected from flooding, and improve our drainage system to make sure that Isaac doesn’t happen again,” she said.
Argue added that she thinks there is not enough concern among current board members about overdevelopment.
“I’ve been involved in the ‘No to Minto’ movement since its inception,” Argue said. “I really want to protect the lifestyle that’s out there. I see the bigger picture in terms of what’s coming with these developers if they get what they want.”
Argue believes the board has been slow in organizing a team to address Minto West and other development issues. “We finally have, and we have a legal team assembled,” she said.
But Argue pointed out that Minto made its presentation in December. “During that time, we could have been assembling the information based on the application, because it has been filed for some time,” she said. “I’ve heard people say, ‘We want to be at the table, not under the table.’ Well, you can still be at the table while protecting the interests of The Acreage.”
ABOVE: Seat 3 candidates Ralph Bair, David Bradley and Alan Ballweg.
