Bush emphasizes fiscal responsibility and balanced growth in District 3 race

Christy Fulks Bush is no stranger to pub­lic ser­vice. For 26 years, she has served Clark County Public Schools as an edu­ca­tor and school dis­trict administrator.

Now she wants to rep­re­sent the 3^rd District on the Clark County Fiscal Court.

Bush, 58, is direc­tor of the Hannah McClure Cardinal Community Center. She began work­ing for the school dis­trict as a teacher and then prin­ci­pal at Strode Station Elementary School and has held sev­er­al admin­is­tra­tive posi­tions, includ­ing direc­tor of pupil per­son­nel and stu­dent sup­port services.

She has also served on mul­ti­ple com­mit­tees, was a site-based deci­sion-mak­ing coun­cil mem­ber, was a mem­ber of the mayor’s “think tank,” and has served on the Winchester–Clark County Planning Commission.

“I have been in ser­vice, my whole fam­i­ly has been in ser­vice,” she said when asked why she’s run­ning for mag­is­trate. “I want to be able to make a dif­fer­ence. I want to be part of the solution.”

Her fam­i­ly tra­di­tion of pub­lic ser­vice includes her father’s career as a law enforce­ment offi­cer, fam­i­ly mem­bers’ ser­vice in all branch­es of the mil­i­tary, and her grandfather’s time in city government.

“My grand­fa­ther was a city com­mis­sion­er, and when he passed away, we found out he was run­ning for may­or” after dis­cov­er­ing his cam­paign mer­chan­dise, she said.

A major con­cern of hers is ensur­ing coun­ty gov­ern­ment is prop­er­ly fund­ed and that those funds are used wisely.

“Number one is being fis­cal­ly respon­si­ble,” she said. “Are we doing all we can do? Do we need to ven­ture into maybe writ­ing some grants” rather than rely­ing sole­ly on tax­pay­er dollars?

In her career, Bush said, she has had expe­ri­ence work­ing with large grants.

She also wants to be “trans­par­ent” about what the court spends and how.

Bush said she wants to con­tin­ue the eco­nom­ic progress made under the lead­er­ship of Brad Sowdan, who recent­ly left Winchester to become Richmond’s indus­tri­al devel­op­ment director.

“If he didn’t have that vision, where would we be?” she asked.

The Winchester Industrial Park has only 30 acres of land left to sell, and there has been dis­cus­sion of sell­ing rev­enue bonds to expand it.

Bush also com­mend­ed the road depart­ment work­ers and said she wants to make sure they have a strong leader.

Getting devel­op­ment right is a bal­anc­ing act, she said.

Bush said she wants to “be with the times” regard­ing devel­op­ment, but not “get rid of the old ways” and the county’s farmland.

“In our com­pre­hen­sive plan, we have mapped out where our bar­ri­ers need to be. It’s not all or noth­ing,” she said. “I think there needs to be a hap­py medi­um between what we pre­serve and how we grow.”

One area she espe­cial­ly wants to devel­op is the east­ern bypass and its planned extension.

“I real­ly, real­ly want to see Veterans Parkway at its poten­tial,” she said. “I hate the fact that it’s almost the road to nowhere,” because of the lack of utilities.

Bush said state Sen. Greg Elkins, R‑Winchester, has been work­ing hard to make sure the bypass is “fin­ished the way it was started.”

“If we build this road, we need to make sure the infra­struc­ture is there and that we don’t have to back­track,” she said.

Bush said Clark County’s loca­tion offers great oppor­tu­ni­ty for growth.

It sits between Interstates 64 and 75 and the Mountain Parkway, and there are plans to widen U.S. 60.

“We need to do a lit­tle more strate­gic plan­ning instead of just (think­ing about) what’s in front of us,” she said.

This is Bush’s sec­ond time run­ning for magistrate.

She is one of two can­di­dates in the Republican pri­ma­ry for District 3. The oth­er is Ben Moberly, a local busi­ness­man and heavy equip­ment mechanic.

Asked why she thinks she is the bet­ter can­di­date, she said she doesn’t know Moberly well, but believes her expe­ri­ence in lead­er­ship and man­ag­ing large bud­gets gives her an advantage.

“I feel in my heart that I could bring a lot to the table,” she said. “I am a Clark Countian at heart. I want what’s best. I want the grand­chil­dren that we have now … to be able to live here and pros­per here and stay here.”

Bush is mar­ried to Russell Bush, and they have three chil­dren, a son‑in‑law, and two “grand‑babies.”