Thompson Targeting Reelection In Ward B

Published 4:46 pm Thursday, February 6, 2014

FARMVILLE — “Not through yet.”

That is Ward B town council member Sally B. Thompson’s reason for seeking reelection in the May 6 municipal election.

The Duke University graduate has held the Ward B seat for nearly eight years. She was appointed in 2007 after the resignation of former councilwoman Anne Nase.

Email newsletter signup

Thompson was elected in 2008 to fill the remainder of Nase’s unexpired term and reelected in 2010 for a full four-year term.

“I am looking forward to continuing my involvement with several of Farmville’s current key endeavors—the Downtown Farmville Revitalization and the continuing expansion of the Farmers Market,” she said in a campaign press announcement.

“I have also been meeting regularly with a group of Longwood students and faculty members who hope to create a new after-school program for elementary-age children, and I am about to start meeting with a group of Parkview Garden residents who hope to create an after-school education program for both students and their parents at a site in the apartments,” said the retired kindergarten teacher from Prince Edward County Elementary School.

“I would also like to point out that not only am I the only woman now serving on the town council, I am also the only council member who does not presently have a full-time job, which means that since I am retired (with children and grandchildren who live elsewhere), I have the time to go along with my energy and interests, in order to be a responsible member on those committees and task forces that frequently meet early in the morning, but also at various times and places in the afternoons and evenings,” she said. “I value my collaborative work with the other members of the town council and I especially love my involvement with so many different kinds of friends in our increasingly pluralistic community.”

Thompson has served on town council’s police, fire, and safety committee, while also representing town council on the Community Library Board, the Moton Museum Board, and the Farmers Market Board.

“I presently serve on a state-wide committee of the Virginia Municipal League, where I have definitely learned a great deal about how other communities our size are dealing with such issues as water, zoning, parking, tourism, and economic development, and I believe that my exposure to how other communities handle these issues has been helpful in my role as a member of Farmville’s town council,” she explained.

Thompson, who has served on the boards of the United Way and the Prince Edward County School Endowment, says she is running “because I stand behind whatever I undertake, and I want to live up to the promises I have made. I see lots of exciting things that I have helped to start, or have been a part of, that I want to finish, or at least to see well on their way to completion. While I have certainly learned a lot and done a lot in the years that I have been on town council, I feel that there is still more for me to do and to learn. I have always been inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s words in ‘If,’ which is one of my favorite poems: I absolutely feel that I must ‘fill the unforgiving minute full of sixty seconds worth of distance run.’”