Candland's Tele-Townhall Poll Shows What Matters to Gainesville District Citizens

Gainesville Supervisor Peter Candland announced the polling results of his Oct. 9, tele-townhall meeting, providing a snap shot on where Gainesville citizens stand on the most pressing issues in Western Prince William County.

Over 10,000 Gainesville District households were called as residents were asked to participate in Candland’s second townhall meeting. These phone invitations yielded 2,000 participants who listened to their supervisor answer 15 questions ranging from education to transportation. Then, the participants did the talking by answering poll questions to better help their supervisor understand what his constituents thought about the important issues facing the county.

The results of the poll showed that while the majority of Gainesville District residents do not oppose the Bi-County Parkways, certainly more people oppose it than are in favor of it as 49 percent oppose the project, just 17 percent answered that they supported it and 34 percent voted undecided.

On education, more than half the participants voted that they believe the number-one priority for the school system ought to be decreasing class sizes. According to that poll, 53 percent of people answered that reducing classroom size is their highest priority, while 29 percent said it is increasing teacher pay, 4 percent answered it is building more amenities and 14 percent voted for another priority.

Candland also asked residents if they would be interested in building a Western Prince William community center even if it would mean raising taxes to fund the facility. The majority of voters, 51 percent, were opposed to that, while 31 percent were in favor of it.

However, the issue upon which Gainesville District residents were the most united was that of bringing the VRE to Haymarket. When asked, 67 percent of participants voted in favor of that proposal. However, factored into that question was not the plan for funding the transportation project.

Candland said he found the responses to be helpful and said it is his hope “to continue to hold these tele-townhalls in addition to our regular townhall meetings.”

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