Roberts hopes to unite Haymarket Town Council

By Abe Nelson

Published: April 7, 2008

Sean Roberts believes in his town and the American tradition of citizen representation in government.

“I love my town and if you’re going to make a difference, you have to get involved,” said Roberts who is running for a seat on the Haymarket Town Council.

Roberts decided to run for one of six seats on the council at the urging of others and said he hoped he could bring some consensus to a body that he sees as split.

“There are factions that want extreme growth ... and there are factions that want Haymarket to stay the way it was in 18-whatever,” the 51-year-old Roberts said. “The reality is, Haymarket’s growing at a fast rate right now and it’s not going to slow down.”

Roberts said the town had to “step toward the future” responsibly and “grow within its means.”

Haymarket needs sidewalks, traffic lights, parks and possibly a community center, Roberts said.

Getting those things will take some doing.

“In a small town they’re big things and they take careful planning and consideration and obviously they take money,” Roberts said of the infrastructure.

Roberts, who serves on the vestry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Haymarket, said People come to live in the town of roughly 1,400 residents because they want the small town atmosphere, but they want some amenities of a larger town as well.

Roberts figures both sets of needs can be met.

“We can maintain the historic small town feel by putting some further controls on how we handle our building permits and how we handle the acquisition of additional land,” said Roberts, a senior project manager for Nuance International which stages exhibits for museums and trade shows.

Roberts said he doesn’t know if he’s the best qualified of all the candidates but said he thinks he could bring something good to the council if he is elected on May 6.

“I’m not overwhelmed with the existing town council. I think they need fresh insight and a different perspective,” Roberts said.

“I won’t go in there and hurt it and I should be able to help,” he said.

John C. Cole, Susan E. Edwards, Bryan A. Garcia, Christopher A. Johnson, Charles F. King Jr., David M. Leake, Susan M. Shuryn, James E. “Jay” Tobias, Oswald Vazquez and Robert B. “Bob” Weir are also in the race for council seats in the town and 879 registered voters

Cole, Shuryn, Vazquez and Weir are current council members.

Council members are paid $100 per meeting and the council meets about once a month.