Keep calm and vote for balanced leadership

To the editor:

As a long-time resident of The Woodlands, I have seen our beautiful community grow and mature into a real hometown where people genuinely care about their fellow man, support our children and schools, worship freely and welcome newcomers. The Woodlands Township election is extremely important this year—we stand at a crossroads—balanced leadership or extremism.

I have been reading and studying all the candidates running for Township Director, and have seen a troublesome theme emerging. There are enthusiastic new residents who believe that our hometown has fallen prey to poor development choices and made a huge issue of clear cutting in the Village of Creekside Park. I can totally understand why someone who has lived here less than 3 years would be alarmed at the temporary ugliness that occurs during construction of a new shopping center.

But those of us who have been here for decades understand and appreciate the method and progressive nature of constructing large amenities. We saw what Lake Woodlands looked like when it was under construction—very scary. We saw what The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion looked like when it was under construction—very scary. We saw what the Woodlands Mall and Market Street looked like when they were under construction. But George Mitchell had a good plan! Can you even begin to imagine The Woodlands without the lake, the Pavilion, the Mall and Market Street? What if we had given in to cries of panic when these incredible amenities were being constructed? The Pavilion was recently named the Best Amphitheatre in the World and has brought benefits to our community we cannot even begin to list. This is part of our high quality of life we enjoy in our hometown.

Keep Calm and vote for the balanced leadership that Ann Snyder, Amos McDonald and Bruce Tough will bring to The Township Board of Directors. Good government matters. Let’s not mess up the vision George Mitchell had for The Woodlands—it’s a good one.

Sally Bacon

The Woodlands, TX