As the five Republican candidates for the open Gainesville District supervisor seat prepare for the August 23 primary, Democrat Ann Wheeler is already planning for November.

There are no primary contests in Prince William County this year pitting two or more Democrats against each other. After Heritage Hunt resident Carl Genthner switched from the Gainesville supervisor race to challenge Del. Bob Marshall (R-13th), Wheeler found an opening without friendly opposition.

Her campaign platform includes several recommendations for citizen-based advisory committees, such as groups that focus on economic development and small business.

Wheeler also wants county supervisors to be more involved in recruiting businesses, taking more of a lead role than the Department of Economic Development.

"I think that a department can't necessarily take a leadership role in bringing business to the county," said Wheeler. "(Elected) leaders have to do that themselves."

She admittedly has yet to flesh out every detail of her proposed committees, such as whether participants would be volunteers as opposed to paid.

The crux is that she wants to know whether every reasonable option has been vetted during the decision-making process.

"When I get on the board, getting those businesses here will be a priority for me," said Wheeler.

The 50-year-old New Jersey native serves as chairman of the Prince William County Board of Social Services and also worked on outgoing Supervisor John Stirrup's (R) budget committee.

She previously presided as president of the Shelter Lakes homeowners association in Haymarket, has a background in mechanical engineering and was elected to represent parts of Manassas and Gainesville on the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative.

Wheeler said she would have voted against this year's budget because of cuts to the Social Services sector.

Instead of 13 needed staffers, the department received funding for eight. Wheeler said she supported other line items in the budget but that one would have been a deal breaker for her.

"I think it's important to stick to establishing ratios for government workers to populations," said Wheeler, describing herself as supporting "benchmarks of what is reasonable."

"I would advocate for human services as a public safety issue. We can do better," she added. "They could all use more resources, in my opinion."

That said, she opined that the county "has done a great job" staffing and take care of first responders, particularly the police and fire departments. Examples would both would be the development of the Manassas-based police station off of Wellington Road and the Antioch fire station in Haymarket.

When it comes to public safety, what Wheeler would like to change is the way county officials approach road improvements.

"Let's talk about being pro-active with traffic safety solutions instead of being reactive," said Wheeler.

One such area she pointed out as the county having a reactive instead of pro-active approach is Logmill Road. Driver errors and freak accidents combined with the road's hilly terrain have claimed the lives of several people over the last decade along the stretch of rural road in northern Prince William County.

She named Mountain Road in Haymarket as one potential area where the county could be pro-active in dealing with potential problems as significant portions of it are unpaved.

On the issue of extending the Virginia Railway Express west from Broad Run, Wheeler said, "I know it should be extended to at least Haymarket."

However, she countered that claim by saying it could be "beneficial enough to come to Gainesville" if there is not popular support for it in Haymarket, where residents and town officials take issue with such a station being a potential docking station for rail cars.

Another common complaint is that traffic along U.S. 15 will increase during peak points of rush hours.

She supports studying the feasibility of extending the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) commuter bus lines out to the western end of the county, something she said has been largely dismissed by the county.

"That would be a great thing to spend money on because it would have a great impact," she said.

While bus and commuter rail services are readily available in Manassas, they are not in more rural areas like Haymarket and Nokesville.

Wheeler signed a pledge to protect the Rural Crescent from future development but considers herself more of an advocate for so-called smart growth instead of slow or controlled growth.

Perhaps the most controversial vote by the Board of County Supervisors during the last year that affected the western part of the county came from the proposed Avendale subdivision.

Supervisors ultimately approved the development that is set to bring up to 295 new houses to the area near Nokesville by Route 28.

In return, Brookfield Homes is sectioning off land that can be used by youth sports teams such as the Gainesville Grizzlies at a time when open space for competitive sports is lacking behind population growth in the area.

"The infrastructure is not in place for that development," said Wheeler. "I don't see a lot of value for that."

She mentioned that there are "enough" planned developments in the pipeline already and that the county could have worked with the Grizzlies to find a different location for more fields.

Wheeler’s legislative wheel house locally is Silver Lake in Haymarket, where she said many improvements could be made. Those include paving the gravel entrance road and increased maintenance to the property itself.

Securing funding, of course, is the main issue that prevents the county from sinking more resources into the greater area.

"For Gainesville District, I would make Silver Lake a priority," said Wheeler, though she did not name what should be cut from funding if Silver Lake went to the top of the Park Authority’s funding list.

Illegal immigration

On the Rule of Law resolution that governs the county's policy on illegal immigration, Wheeler fell in line with the GOP candidates in that she did not propose any changes to it.

"I'd stop talking about it. It's in place," said Wheeler. During the debate over the proposal in 2007, Wheeler said county officials "took their eye off a lot of other things that they could have focused on."

Now, she wants to "change the conversation."

Simply ignoring the topic for a supervisor is not technically possible assuming each supervisor reviews the county budget each year before authorization.

Items like the 287 (g) program and checking the immigration status of those detained after an arrest requires county employees, who are paid taxpayer-funded salaries, to process the information.

In that regard, Wheeler supports examining the policy for inefficiencies and effectiveness but did not comment much further about it.

Wheeler offered as a closing argument that after living in the county for 10 years, she would like to see "fully-funded community places."

"I think we could do better than the current status quo," said Wheeler.