By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Harold Bost, chairman of the Fayette County Commission, will sign up as a candidate for reelection when qualifying opens next week, but he may not run.

Bost has announced that he will qualify for his Post 3 seat, but will drop out of the race if he is satisfied that other candidates seeking the post are not tied to any “special interests.”

“I plan to thoroughly evaluate each candidate that files for my post,” Bost said in a written statement to the press. “If I find a candidate who I feel reflects my views and is fully capable to do the job, I may then withdraw and throw my efforts behind that individual,” he said.

Bost told The Citizen he had hoped to find someone to take his place before now. “I've been trying to find somebody for my seat for two years or more,” he said. He had planned to be a one-term commissioner all along, he said.

Elected to the commission in 1996, Bost soon began to complain that the group was unduly influenced by the business interests of friends of the commissioners.

“If certain people were involved, they could get just about anything they wanted” from the commission, he said.

Conservative on growth, he also became frustrated with what he perceived as a pro-growth philosophy on the board, Bost said.

In 1998, with the election of commissioners Linda Wells and Greg Dunn, Bost was elected chairman and said he has been much more pleased with the direction the county has taken.

“It has taken a lot of effort, but it has been worth it,” Bost said in his written statement. “Fayette County is now on a smart, managed-growth path.”

In an interview with The Citizen, he added, “I want to keep government going where it's going right now, on the same track.”

He pointed to a master plan for a new government campus as part of the planning for a new county jail and courthouse, plus efforts to put a Fayetteville bypass road on the front burner and the recent decision to enact impact fees as examples of improved long-range thinking on the board. “We have been making practical decisions rather than political decisions,” he said, adding, “there is still much to do and I do not want to see a reversal of the progress we have made.”

Bost said he is concerned not only about what will happen to his own seat on the commission, but also to two other seats up for election in 2000.

Commissioners Herb Frady and Glen Gosa also are at the end of their four-year terms. Frady is running for reelection, while Gosa has announced he will retire from the board.

“We can not afford to let any of these three seats go to candidates from special interest groups or to candidates with self interest,” said Bost.