QUINCY CITY COUNCIL POS. 5: Pete Shelton

QUINCY — Pete Shelton said he’s running for Quincy City Council because Quincy is changing, and he believes he can help with the transition.

“I decided to run because Quincy, to me, is at a turning point,” Shelton said. “I’m working in the data center industry, and I’ve been a farmer, and I’m pretty rooted in both the tech industry and (agriculture). I see an opportunity as a council member to bridge the two worlds.”

Shelton is running for Council Position 5 against incumbent Dave Dormier. Ricardo Ruesga Loera also filed for the seat but told the Columbia Basin Herald that he’s not actively campaigning.

“I want to preserve the character of Quincy as a small town, but now with the support of data centers that are putting in millions and millions of dollars in taxes,” Shelton said.

Shelton said that in addition, he sees some issues that he thinks need addressing, but that he has been dissatisfied with the response of the council and of city officials.

“An ongoing issue for me is to have community engagement that’s heard by city council and acted upon,” he said. “And transparency within the budget planning, and the city council directly and the mayor’s office. There are some issues there.”

Transparency and response to community concerns are very important to him, he said. He cited the interaction of train tracks and pedestrians as an example. Quincy is bisected by train tracks and is continuing to grow north of the tracks.

“During the school year, there are children walking across train tracks where there are no pedestrian crossings at all, no sidewalks,” he said.

Shelton and a friend have been advocating for better pedestrian options around the tracks, and the response from the city and council has been, in his opinion, inadequate.

“(We are) trying to get the council to address this, and they just keep pushing it back,” he said. “We want more transparency, maybe some new ideas.”

If he’s elected, Shelton said, one of his goals would be to increase community interaction.

“When you go to a council meeting, there’s only a couple of minutes allowed for the community to speak, and that’s only twice a month,” he said. “Maybe if we had more community outreach, that would help too.”

Quincy faces challenges with its water supply, and Shelton said water is an important issue, one that city officials, including the council, need to address.

Quincy has a lot of truck traffic, and it’s increasing, Shelton said, and he thinks the council should take steps to reduce it. Traffic in general is an issue, he said.

“People are complaining about speeding vehicles on Third Avenue Northeast and M Street Northeast and other arteries because we don’t have speed bumps,” he said. “There’s no way to make people slow down.”

Shelton said he would support building a dog park in town, as well as additional upgrades to city parks. He also would advocate working with the Quincy School District to rebalance elementary school populations, he said.