MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A former business executive who has returned to the community that she grew up in is now on the campaign trail for a Monongalia County Commission seat.

Mary Ann Folz continues to reach out to voters in the weeks ahead of the start of early voting for the 2024 general election, where the first-time candidate looks to address ways to improve Monongalia County. Folz, who worked for over 35 years as a business analyst and systems manager for Proctor & Gamble, hopes to bring her professional experience to the commission with plans to address concerns in the Morgantown area and improve working relationships in the county.

“I am a Mon County native, grew up here, and after college I worked in Corporate America for 34 years,” said Folz. “A couple of years ago, I moved back to my family farm, and I saw things that I thought we needed to address,” she said.

One of the more highly discussed topics by Folz in her conversations with voters has been related to the rising unsheltered individual population in the Morgantown area. The situation, which has grown to over 120 unsheltered homeless reported in Morgantown according to the last Point-in-Time county, has also become increasingly contentious after the Morgantown City Council passed a city camping ban expansion despite multiple concerns from local social service agencies. Folz, who has been a part of a combination of city council and county commission meetings, hopes to achieve a massive reduction in the number of unsheltered individuals in the city, which would involve local social services in the process.

“We should be reducing the number of unhoused folks in our area by 80 to 90 percent within one to two years,” said Folz. “The county commission can work with programs to either fund them or to support them in other ways,” she said.

Improved communications with both county employees and state entities was another area Folz hopes to address if elected to the Monongalia County Commission. Among those she mentioned were the working relationships the commission had with City of Morgantown officials (particularly with specific members of council), officials with the West Virginia Department of Highways, and county employees who reacted poorly to the commission’s initial introduction of the United Mine Workers Association union efforts with the County Assessor’s Office. While she feels certain aspects of the county operations are fine and need to be left alone, Folz believes other aspects can be improved by talking more with local entities.

“If you can build a good relationship with the Department of Highways and build a maintenance program and a schedule, that’s what it really comes down to,” said Folz. “You can’t go talk to the Department of Highways and, you know, yell at them, you have to be able to build a good, working relationship,” she said.

Folz faces Democratic candidate and longtime Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom, who has served on the commission since 2012. Despite being a Republican candidate in a Republican supermajority state, Folz expects there to be a slight disadvantage in regards to political experience with Bloom’s over-decade-long tenure on the commission, which included multiple terms as Monongalia County Commission President. This is also separate from the electorate of the county, which remains one of the few Democratic strongholds in the Mountain State. Despite those challenges, Folz wants voters to view her as someone who is ready to improve Morgantown and other Monongalia County communities.

“There’s other areas that are growing, and the areas that are growing, we need to continue that momentum,” said Folz. “What I do want to do is return our lost charm to our town (Morgantown), I want to address our community’s biggest challenges, and I want our community to be involved,” she said.

The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, October 15. Early voting for the 2024 general election begins on October 23. Election day is November 5.

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