CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) – Meet the Chatham County presidential candidates ahead of the election.

Native to the savannah Joel Boblasky works against the flow President Chester Ellisalso a native of Chatham County.

WTOC spoke with both of them to see why they deserve your vote.

The countywide presidential race is historically the most competitive seat on the board, with Ellis winning the race in 2020.

Boblasky came onto the scene with a background in commercial real estate. He said his run for office was motivated by the belief that Chatham County residents deserve better.

“I think we deserve better, you know, in our emergency services, number one. Second, we need to take care of our roads, bridges and drainage system. And third, we need better fiscal accountability to keep taxes fair and low for all Chatham County residents. Unincorporated companies are included in this. We need to keep our county spending local,” Boblasky said.

He said it was essential to establish the emergency services department and the 911 center.

“Right off the bat, I would love to see us put a shovel in the ground to build this command center. Especially with hurricanes coming, we need these types of facilities. We need it, that’s why it’s supposed to be built, but to wait 12 years for this to happen is simply unacceptable, and in the business world, that doesn’t happen. You write it. You get it done,” Boblasky said.

It also seeks to address the homeless problem downtown and on DeRenne Avenue.

“This is killing us. This is absolutely killing us here. This is taking over shopping centers. It’s in the neighborhoods. It’s bad, but, you know, we’ll fix it on day one,” Boblasky said.

Another major problem he wants to address is that of setting up infrastructure.

“Don’t let the developers lead us. We must lead the developers. They’ll be in line all day, but when they get here and there’s no infrastructure in place, you know, then the road is under construction for the next 10 to 15 years. Perfect example, I-16,” Boblasky said.

President Chester Ellis said he was running again to finish the job he started. Infrastructure issues are also on his to-do list.

“As we are catching up with the growth spurt, we have laid the groundwork for things and so we need to implement them. I’m talking about infrastructure, I’m talking about roads, I’m talking about waterways, I’m talking about wastewater, I’m talking about drainage, I’m talking about flooding, I’m talking about housing. We’re talking about preparing people for the jobs that are currently in the market here, preparing our high school students so that when they come out of high school, they can go into a job that makes things worthwhile,” President Ellis said.

Chairman Ellis said that over the past two years, Chatham County’s population has increased by nearly 52,000 people.

“We didn’t have a growth plan when I became president. We have discovered many factors and elements regarding growth. We knew the port was growing, but we didn’t know Hyundai was coming. We didn’t know Amazon was coming. We didn’t know Gulfstream was going to grow at the rate it’s growing,” said President Ellis.

President Ellis has his own plan to combat homelessness.

“As for what we are going to do with these housing camps, and so we are working with our private partners, that means our hotels and certain places that we are going to transform into residences for people who are down on their luck,” he said. said President Ellis.

He said he hopes voters see the work he has already done and the projects he continues to do.

“For the first time under my administration since 2021, we appeared in the Congressional budget more than once, and that has never happened before. So we have these federal funds that are here, and I mean also major federal grants, like $30 million to take care of flooding and drainage, $30.7 million to take care of transportation that are went to CAT, which they spend, and this money is going to come in year after year, it’s a five year grant, $6.6 million a year, that we have to take care of transportation here in the county said President Ellis.

You can watch the full interviews for each candidate below:

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