Campaign stop, Celina Record

Fletcher, Keating make campaign stop at Celina coffeehouse Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Feb 26, 2016 Election season is in full swing in Collin County, and a pair of local political candidates made a stop last week in Celina to stump for themselves and one another. Susan Fletcher, Collin County commissioner for Precinct 1, and Frisco Mayor Pro Tem John Keating, a Republican who is running for the Texas House District 33 seat, addressed local business leaders and city officials Feb. 19 during the Greater Celina Chamber of Commerce’s Coffee with the Chamber event at Ground Up Coffee, 2750 S. Preston Rd. Fletcher, whose district includes Celina, is running unopposed in her bid for re-election to the seat she has held for 14 months. She was elected in November 2014 to fulfill the remaining two years of an unexpired four-year term for the Precinct 1 seat, which is set to expire in December. “I’m looking forward to the full term,” she told the crowd before discussing her platform issues, which include economic development, public safety and improving transportation infrastructure throughout the precinct. “I’m very development-focused. I want to make sure that we grow along with the population that’s coming and make sure that we have enough infrastructure in place,” Fletcher said, adding that between 75 and 100 people move into Collin County each day. “And they’re bringing their cars.” Transportation issues are among the biggest facing local municipalities, she said. Celina Mayor Sean Terry, who attended the Coffee with the Chamber event, interrupted Fletcher’s speech to tell attendees that the city has a “good partnership” with the commissioner. He cited the role Fletcher played in recent, tense discussions between Celina and Prosper officials about an overpass bridge slated to be built between the municipalities on Frontier Parkway. “Without Susan’s leadership and help on that, we were kind of at a stuck point. Prosper wanted a certain look, which is fine. We wanted a certain look. We wanted to make sure that we were fiscally responsible,” the mayor explained. “At the end of the day, we finally got there … thanks to Susan’s leadership.” Following her address, Fletcher said if re-elected she will continue to advocate for construction of the Collin County Outer Loop, particularly the section proposed between the Dallas North Tollway and Preston Road. “It’s not something that I’m going to put on the backburner,” she said. “It has to stay on the front-burner.” Fletcher introduced Keating by describing him as having “a heart as big as Texas. … He loves his community, he loves his country.” A former Army counterintelligence agent during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Keating is running for the seat that will be vacated by incumbent Rep. Scott Turner, who announced last year he would not seek another term. House District 33 covers all of Rockwall County and part of Collin County. Keating is running against fellow Republicans Justin Holland and Lorne Liechty, and Democrats Cristin Padgett and Karen Jacobs. Like Fletcher, Keating touched on transportation infrastructure woes during his address and shared a funny tale about how the truck he and Fletcher were recently riding in nearly became stuck on a soggy Collin County backroad while the two were posting campaign signs. “We were throwing mud all over the place,” he recalled. Keating also fielded questions from attendees about local water and tax issues. He said that he would like to lessen tax burdens for business owners. Following his speech, he described Celina and other similar cities throughout the state as being on “the ground floor of Texas business opportunities. “Everyone looks at these big powerhouse cities, but really the wind under their wings, so to speak, are these small towns and small businesses,” he said. Keating said he wants to get rid of the franchise tax in an effort to “help all businesses perform better. “Then it puts more money back into the consumers’ pockets because if you lower the cost of doing business, you lower the price of goods and services,” which will “create more efficiency and you’ll actually generate more tax dollars – certainly in sales tax revenue – as people go out to spend that money on what they want rather than giving it to the government.”