(June 23, 2016) District 2 Councilmember Lisa Hall threw her hat into the mayoral election ring on Friday, filling out the paperwork to challenge incumbent Mayor Gee Williams.
Hall, 58, was raised on a chicken farm in nearby Parsonsburg. She worked in property management and ran a business with her late husband, and is currently serving her second four-year term on the town council.
She has been extremely active with the Maryland Municipal League, where she served on the board and the legislative and communications committees. She also serves on the board of the Rural Maryland Council and is president of the Eastern Shore Association of Municipalities.
Along with that experience, which she said enabled her to “get educated in municipal government,” Hall said she has seen some unsettling things occur on the council during the last few years.
“I’ve been [serving] two terms on the council, and unfortunately there’s things that have happened that I’m not comfortable with [like] the direction the town is going as far as expanding the borders of Berlin and doing the spot annexations,” she said.
“I feel that Berlin is very unique. We have a very charming town, and the reason why we are such a destination for people to want to visit – as well as live here – is because of our unique, small-town charm,” she continued. “I’m afraid that if we continue to develop with the ‘spot development’ that we will lose this small-town charm, and once it’s gone it’s gone. It cannot be regained.”
She praised the current mayor and council in helping Berlin recover from “the biggest recession this county has seen since the Great Depression,” and said the town was almost singular in terms of being able to prosper and grow during that crisis.
Because of that success, however, Hall said the town is frequently courted by outside businesses and developers that are looking to cash in.
“I feel like we’re not doing a good job with that,” she said. “I want to protect this town from annexations outside of our greenbelt. We had a comprehensive plan. We’ve had meetings with residents, and all the residents are saying ‘we do not want to expand Berlin’ – they do not want cookie cutter development.”
Hall went on to suggest the residents were concerned with how their tax dollars were being spent.
“I feel that this mayor and council has done a very good job in that [recession] economy with concentrating on the infrastructure in this town and developing businesses, but now it’s time to do something for the residents,” Hall said. “And I want a skateboard park put up immediately. There’s no reason why we’re not building a skateboard park right now [at the former Tyson plant].”
She said her first duty, as mayor, would be to meet with town staff, working individually with each department head for a few days in order to get a sense of how each one is performing.
“Going forward, the residents of Berlin should be considered priority in any development – not the developer,” Hall said.
Hall, 58, was raised on a chicken farm in nearby Parsonsburg. She worked in property management and ran a business with her late husband, and is currently serving her second four-year term on the town council.
She has been extremely active with the Maryland Municipal League, where she served on the board and the legislative and communications committees. She also serves on the board of the Rural Maryland Council and is president of the Eastern Shore Association of Municipalities.
Along with that experience, which she said enabled her to “get educated in municipal government,” Hall said she has seen some unsettling things occur on the council during the last few years.
“I’ve been [serving] two terms on the council, and unfortunately there’s things that have happened that I’m not comfortable with [like] the direction the town is going as far as expanding the borders of Berlin and doing the spot annexations,” she said.
“I feel that Berlin is very unique. We have a very charming town, and the reason why we are such a destination for people to want to visit – as well as live here – is because of our unique, small-town charm,” she continued. “I’m afraid that if we continue to develop with the ‘spot development’ that we will lose this small-town charm, and once it’s gone it’s gone. It cannot be regained.”
She praised the current mayor and council in helping Berlin recover from “the biggest recession this county has seen since the Great Depression,” and said the town was almost singular in terms of being able to prosper and grow during that crisis.
Because of that success, however, Hall said the town is frequently courted by outside businesses and developers that are looking to cash in.
“I feel like we’re not doing a good job with that,” she said. “I want to protect this town from annexations outside of our greenbelt. We had a comprehensive plan. We’ve had meetings with residents, and all the residents are saying ‘we do not want to expand Berlin’ – they do not want cookie cutter development.”
Hall went on to suggest the residents were concerned with how their tax dollars were being spent.
“I feel that this mayor and council has done a very good job in that [recession] economy with concentrating on the infrastructure in this town and developing businesses, but now it’s time to do something for the residents,” Hall said. “And I want a skateboard park put up immediately. There’s no reason why we’re not building a skateboard park right now [at the former Tyson plant].”
She said her first duty, as mayor, would be to meet with town staff, working individually with each department head for a few days in order to get a sense of how each one is performing.
“Going forward, the residents of Berlin should be considered priority in any development – not the developer,” Hall said.