Two of the three seats up for election on the Franklin County Board of Supervisors are contested, and those races involve the most densely populated district in the county and one of the most rural.
For more election information
To see who’s on the ballot in Franklin County and where they stand, see the Franklin County page on our Voter Guide.
The issues being addressed by the candidates are similar to most other local governments in this part of the state. Constituents are concerned about the inflation of everyday costs, such as housing, utilities, groceries and taxes, while wages have not gone up at the same rate.
Economic development, better housing options at a variety of price points and the best way to address the county’s education and public safety sectors are all major platforms for each candidate. Each says their approach to these issues would best suit the voters in their respective districts.
Rocky Mount’s current supervisor, Mike Carter, is seeking a third term. He first got onto the board by unseating longtime supervisor Charles Wagner in 2017 and then was re-elected in an unopposed race in 2021. This time, he is being challenged by retired public safety employee Billy Ferguson.
The other contested race is Snow Creek, where incumbent Nick Mitchell, who is a full-time farmer and rancher after spending many years working in the private sector, is running for his first full term after winning a six-candidate special election in 2022 to replace Leland Mitchell, who had died early in his fifth term on the board. Mitchell is taking on Shawn Davis, who was born in Rocky Mount and has lived most of his life in Southwest Virginia. He said he moved back to Franklin County in 2005.
All the candidates are independents.
Rocky Mount District: Mike Carter vs. Bill Ferguson
Carter, who was a small business owner in Rocky Mount for more than 30 years and was a longtime board member for a local bank, touted his background in fiscal matters as a positive for the county to have him as a supervisor. Among the accomplishments he championed was the purchase of a vacant industrial park property in Rocky Mount that the supervisors plan to renovate and turn into the school district’s new career and technical center, as well as a new 911 call center and emergency training center.
“[The new center] will not create any tax increase for anyone in Franklin County,” he said during a podcast-sponsored debate with Ferguson that was first streamed in September on social media. “The CTE building we purchased for $5 million — that’s less than the assessed value. Building a new high school behind the high school was going to cost in the neighborhood of $90 million. We can buy the CTE building, furnish it and outfit it, conservatively for $40 million. … So we’re shaving a good $45-50 million off with this option.”
Ferguson, who said during the debate that while he likes Carter personally, he believes the Rocky Mount district needs a change in representation. He agreed with Carter that economic development, including getting the new technical center in place, is essential to the area. He said his other issues are improving emergency services within the county and looking into more efficient forms of public transportation.
He differed on the decision to use the industrial park property instead of following through with building the education facility on a 40-acre plot of land adjacent to Franklin County High School that had been purchased more than a decade ago with that purpose in mind. His reasons included safety concerns with having a school facility in an industrial park that also has nonschool employees in the same plac, and potential difficulties in getting Rocky Mount’s town council to approve the rezoning requests necessary to go forward.
“I’m a proponent of the new CTE center 110%,” he said. “What I’m not in favor of is having this buffet of services. I can’t understand why we want to put a public safety office and a 911 center in the same facility a school is in.”
Ferguson added that there needs to be more transparency within the board, promising he would always be accessible to the public and would hold periodical town hall meetings where members of his district can bring up concerns that they believe need to be addressed.
Carter disagrees with Ferguson’s claim that more transparency is needed, stating that all agendas, documents that are produced by and for the board of supervisors, as well as video links to past meetings, can be found on the county’s website. On the subject of safety concerns, if the CTE center is located away from the main high school campus, he said that all three operations will have separate entrances and parking facilities, and that if the county were to construct a new building instead, tax increases would be necessary.
“It’s a win-win for the county,” he said. “… We can’t keep kicking the can down the road for this project. We have a solution for three things at one time for a very affordable price tag.”
Carter, who refers to himself as a “common sense candidate,” said the fact that he spent his professional life working in the private sector benefits Franklin County residents because he knows the impact higher taxes have on businesses, and higher costs would make it harder to get new businesses and industries to consider coming to the area. He also questions whether his opponent, who spent much of his career as a public employee, feels the same way about keeping taxes low.
“If I’m re-elected, I will promise the constituents I will work the hardest to hold that tax level now,” he said.
Ferguson said he believes the current tax rates will be sufficient if the county finds new revenue streams, such as allowing short-term rentals for private homes on the Franklin County side of Smith Mountain Lake and promoting other recreation opportunities.
Snow Creek District: Shawn Davis vs. Nick Mitchell
In Snow Creek, Mitchell said he was new to politics when he first took his seat and learned one very important lesson immediately.
“The main thing I’ve learned is on that board, if you don’t have friends — if you don’t have three other people — you don’t have anything,” he said. “So if you can’t work with others, you’ll get nothing done.”
Mitchell said he has been able to clear that hurdle several times in his current term in ways that have benefitted his district, including making it possible to convert the Snow Creek EMS services from a volunteer operation into one that has paid employees who work out of a modern facility that includes sleeping quarters.
“The community raised $80,000 for the project,” Mitchell said. “And through diplomacy and working together with other supervisors, I was able to get them $100,000 of county funds.”
Mitchell said he also advocated closing unmanned garbage collection sites in the district and constructing a supervised site that will better prevent illegal dumping and keep refuse contained until it is transferred to the county’s landfill.
When it comes to economic development and the role Snow Creek plays in it, Mitchell believes the emphasis there should not be on finding new sites for businesses or industry, but rather making that part of the county a destination point for outdoor enthusiasts.
“In our district, we really appreciate our open space, our rural character and really opening everybody’s eyes that there’s more to development than just filling up a business park,” Mitchell said. “Agriculture is a huge thing in my district. We house Franklin County Recreation Park, and fighting to maintain our open space and farm land, and keeping solar [farms] out has been a huge accomplishment of mine.”
Davis, who works as a disaster restoration coordinator, said he entered the race because he has always been interested in local government and has kept up with the county’s supervisor meetings in recent years.
“I would watch and listen, and felt like we could do more in our area,” he said. When I talked to people and I’d mention our current supervisor and what he was doing, nobody really knew anything. … I just felt that we needed a louder voice in our area.”
When it comes to the county’s economy, Davis said his feelings are shared on his campaign signs he has posted throughout the district.
“It says job skills, business growth and low taxes — those are the things that I want to work on,” he said. “… I’ve said that I think our economic development director should probably be the highest-paid person in the county. What’s going to drive our economy is bringing more businesses here.”
While Davis agrees with Mitchell that Snow Creek needs to maintain its rural identity, there is still room for modernization, especially in the areas of broadband availability and reliable cell service.
“Broadband internet is almost non-existent in some areas,” he said. “Cell service, if you have [certain cell providers], you’re OK, but if you have others, good luck.
“It’s an issue that [county leaders] have said it’s coming. But there’s no real answer as to why it’s taken so long.”
Davis said such upgrades would be more than just a modern luxury; it is a necessity.
“We have an aging population, and if a person has good internet and cell service, they can do a lot from their home,” he said. “They can do doctor’s appointments online, they can order medication — there’s a whole list of things.”
