I was so pleased when I heard that Van Rowell was a candidate for the Kannapolis City Council. I realized that our community can gain an enormous servant leader by electing someone like Van to the city leadership.

As a member of the City Council, I have a good working knowledge of what makes a good candidate. Career background and job skills that match up with the city’s direction make an effective member. Those qualities describe Van’s work history.

Our city is poised to move forward toward revitalization of the downtown area. The first step in that process is to provide infrastructure to support the revitalization. Van is a certified engineer who has vast experience serving as project manager in wastewater management for many years.

That background is invaluable for the city in two areas: (1) helping to prioritize the projects in the correct order of completion and (2) providing value engineering to make sure we complete the project in the most cost- effective manner. If we were to hire a consultant to work with the city on our revitalization efforts, it would be someone with the same job skills and work knowledge as Van.

His tireless involvement in the community through Rotary shows he is a man of service and integrity who truly wants the best for Kannapolis. I cannot think of a better candidate to assist in moving our city forward. I urge you to join me in voting for Van Rowell for Kannapolis City Council on Nov. 7.

— Roger Haas

Kannapolis