Voters in South Hall County will find the District 1 seat on the Hall County Board of Commissioners on their ballot in this year's midterm elections.
The District 1 position will be on the ballot this year as Republican incumbent Kathy Cooper runs against Democratic candidate Laura Colaninno. District 1 covers a majority of the land in South Hall County, east of Flowery Branch. The position sits among three other district seats.
Colaninno will be on the ballot but halted her campaign efforts on September 2 due to unrelated circumstances. She declined to provide AccessWDUN any further comments on her position.
Cooper has held the District 1 position for eight years. While Cooper didn’t originally plan on sitting on the commission past her first term, she looks to renew her standing.
“Honestly when I started, I had no plans of going past my first term,” Cooper said. “Because you think, ‘Well, I’m going to get in there, make some changes, do some things,’ but then when you get there, the longer you’re there, the more you learn. And you can reflect back on some of the things that may not have been done right five years ago that you were involved in.”
Cooper is currently in the middle of several restructuring projects that seek to tighten up the District 1 zoning. COVID-19 played a major role in spurring massive growth in her district.
“When COVID hit, a lot of things changed for a lot of people,” Cooper said. “We really got slammed with a lot of growth over the last two or three years. So we really sort of got a lot going on, and that showed us some of the things that we needed to correct. So we’re in the process of doing some of those changes now and when we approve zonings.”
A key focus for Cooper and the other commissioners is to ensure development is appropriate and suitable, along with constructing appealing landscapes. Additionally, Cooper voted to spend funds on the road paving program to support the high level of growth in South Hall County. The commission also supported the completion of sewer and park master plans, as well as a compensation study to reference other government pay scales compared to Hall County.
Cooper said that learning from previous commission decisions is a critical part of the job.
“If you’re not learning and seeing your mistakes, and challenging that and trying to make improvements, then you’re not serving your people,” Cooper said.
A major point of Cooper’s platform is to continue to accomplish the sewer, parks, and capital improvement plans they have set forward. She is currently on the cusp of voting to start phase two of a project on Spout Springs Road and navigating sewer easements on Friendship Road.
Cooper also involves herself in the community through her Christmas tree farm, which will open for annual business in the coming weeks. Cooper said many of her constituents come to her farm and share their opinions on the happenings in District 1. She sees it as a great way to gather feedback from people that have been in the South Hall County community for a long time.
Cooper has lived in the area for 37 years and prides herself on being an upstanding servant and representative of the people.
“I feel like with our farms and things around, I have a responsibility to our neighbors to do the best I can do for South Hall,” Cooper said.
Early voting runs through November 4. In-person voting will take place in many locations around Hall County on November 8.
