Bowman emphasizes business growth and housing

James Bowman, a mil­i­tary vet­er­an and young entre­pre­neur, says he’s run­ning for city com­mis­sion­er because he’s invest­ed in his com­mu­ni­ty and knows what it needs to thrive.

He not only wants to attract new busi­ness­es, but keep those that are here, work with devel­op­ers to pro­vide incen­tives for afford­able hous­ing, and help make his city a place that offers oppor­tu­ni­ties for work and leisure.

“I’m run­ning because I got tired of hear­ing that ‘there’s noth­ing to do in Winchester’ and see­ing noth­ing change. So I did some­thing about it,” the 31-year-old own­er of High Speed Collectibles said in a can­di­date survey.

“I took the risk, invest­ed my own mon­ey, and built a busi­ness that brings peo­ple into this city instead of send­ing them some­where else,” he said.

“That’s the dif­fer­ence I bring. I’m not a career politi­cian. I’m some­one who has actu­al­ly built some­thing here. I know what it takes to start from noth­ing, sur­vive the ear­ly stages, and cre­ate some­thing that lasts. I’ve seen busi­ness­es fail here, and I’ve proven what it takes to succeed.”

Bowman said his mil­i­tary and project man­age­ment back­ground taught him how to lead under pres­sure, man­age large bud­gets, and deliv­er results when it matters.

“I’ve worked on projects worth hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars where there’s no room for excus­es. Winchester doesn’t need more ideas. It needs exe­cu­tion,” he concluded.

Bowman is a life­long Winchester res­i­dent. He grad­u­at­ed from George Rogers Clark High School in 2012 and has been mar­ried to his high school sweet­heart, Bree, for 13 years. They have two kids, Jayden, 12, and Rylan, 8.

He earned an asso­ciate degree in busi­ness from Columbia Southern University and served in the mil­i­tary for more than a decade.

For five years, Bowman was on active duty in the Marine Corps as a facil­i­ties man­ag­er and sub­stance abuse con­trol offi­cer, and for six years, he served in the Air Force Reserve as a struc­tur­al mechan­ic on KC-46 air­craft. During that time, he also worked in project man­age­ment roles sup­port­ing fed­er­al operations.

“Professionally, I’ve worked in con­struc­tion and project man­age­ment on projects exceed­ing $300 mil­lion, man­ag­ing teams, bud­gets, and dead­lines where fail­ure wasn’t an option,” he said.

For the past five years, Bowman has owned and oper­at­ed High Speed Collectibles, a game card and col­lectibles shop in down­town Winchester, which has become a des­ti­na­tion for peo­ple from across Kentucky and oth­er states. Earlier this year, he and his wife also opened the Book Nook on Main, a book­store that spe­cial­izes in fan­ta­sy romances.

Bowman says he stays involved in the com­mu­ni­ty by men­tor­ing stu­dents, sup­port­ing teach­ers and schools, donat­ing to and sup­port­ing local food and toy dri­ves, work­ing with local orga­ni­za­tions, and help­ing fam­i­lies in need.

His top pri­or­i­ties for city gov­ern­ment include build­ing a last­ing local econ­o­my and pro­mot­ing growth, espe­cial­ly afford­able hous­ing development.

“We don’t just strug­gle to attract busi­ness­es, we strug­gle to keep them,” he said. “Too many open and close with­in six months. That’s not ran­dom. That’s a sys­tem problem.”

Right now, he said, the city offers short-term finan­cial help, which is use­ful, but “doesn’t fix why busi­ness­es fail.”

“Most peo­ple aren’t pre­pared for what it actu­al­ly takes to sur­vive here,” he said. “We need to focus on prepa­ra­tion, not just sup­port. That means help­ing busi­ness own­ers under­stand the local mar­ket, set real­is­tic expec­ta­tions, and learn from peo­ple who have already made it work.”

“Strong busi­ness­es need a strong down­town; emp­ty store­fronts don’t,” he added.

Bowman said Winchester has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to grow, but it’s not set up to take advan­tage of that opportunity.

“I’ve spo­ken with devel­op­ers who want to build here, espe­cial­ly afford­able hous­ing, but many walk away because the process isn’t worth the risk. That’s a missed oppor­tu­ni­ty,” he observed. “We need to be proac­tive, not reac­tive. Work with devel­op­ers. Create incen­tives that make sense. Make Winchester a place where growth is possible.”

At the same time, he said, growth only works if peo­ple feel safe. Cutting law enforce­ment posi­tions sends the wrong mes­sage. First respon­ders are essen­tial, and sup­port­ing them has to be a pri­or­i­ty, he insisted.

“If we want peo­ple to live here, invest here, and stay here, we have to give them a rea­son to,” he said.