By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

Democrat Elizabeth Jane Barnes has waited quietly in the wings while Republicans started with three candidates seeking the party nomination for County Commission Post 1, whittled that down to two, and then one.

Now Barnes, who faced no opposition for the Democratic nomination July 18, is ready to start campaigning in earnest for the General Election Nov. 7, facing A.G. VanLandingham, who came out on top in the GOP runoff last week.

Though she is fully aware that she is running in a heavily Republican county, Barnes, 60, said she hopes voters will focus on her as an individual, rather than voting party ideology.

“People vote for the person,” said Barnes, who owns and operates The Bookworm book store in Fayetteville. “They're more independent now.”

A Fayetteville resident who has lived in the county for 23 years, Barnes has been married to Stuart Barnes for 33 years, and was a real estate broker before the couple purchased The Bookworm.

It wasn't something they were planning, she said, but when the business went up for sale, spending her time in an office full of great books seemed like the perfect business for her, she said.

And it provides a great opportunity to find out what the people of Fayette County are thinking, she said. “I take my own little polls,” she said, adding that if she is elected she will continue to find out what her constituents want. “I'm not there for myself. I'm there for what they want,” she said.

Among the top issues Barnes is running on are tough tree protection laws and low-density growth.

“I'm against `smart growth' — density,” she said in reaction to current efforts by the Atlanta Regional Commission to encourage higher density development along public transit corridors.

But she does favor a publicly operated bus system, she said. With current privately operated systems, “It costs $15 to go to the grocery store. It shouldn't be that way... the county should take that over,” she said.

Barnes said she attended most of the meetings when both Fayette County and the city of Fayetteville were hammering out the details of new tree protection ordinances, and she will work to see that more existing trees are saved from developers' bulldozers.

She also strongly approves current efforts at the county level to allow developers to cover parking lots with porous paving materials rather than concrete, to improve drainage and reduce rainwater runoff. “We should have it where it doesn't even look like a parking lot,” she said.

Plans for a green space program aimed at setting aside 20 percent of local land for parks also get Barnes' approval, but she said she would like to see more large parks, not just small neighborhood ones. A developer's plan for donating 215.5 out of 873 acres for a park is a good example, she said. “That would be a good buffer area between the county and city [of Fayetteville],” she said.

Local cities' claims that their residents aren't getting a fair share of services from Fayette County are wrong, Barnes said. “I will stand behind the commissioners,” she said.

On taxes in general, she called for a freeze on tax reassessments as long as the same person owns the property. When it is sold, the new owner would pay taxes based on current values at that time, she added.

Barnes also favors a requirement that developers donate land for schools, and would push for more bicycle paths if elected, she said.

She opposes current plans to build a bypass around Fayetteville, though, she said. “It just means more congestion,” she said, but added, “If it's what the people want, it's their agenda.”

With a bright smile, Barnes said she has nothing against her opponent, VanLandingham. In fact, she likes him. “He's a good guy,” she said. “He comes in [the book store] all the time.”

She also likes the current commissioners, she added, and would get along with them fine, if elected. “I was so pleased when [commission Chairman Harold] Bost got elected,” she said, adding, “I believe in a team approach.”

Barnes has attended Orange Memorial Nursing School in Orlando, Fla., Florida Technical College, Broward Community College in Florida and Gordon College in Barnesville, Ga. She has run for County Commission one other time, in 1979.