NEWS-TOPIC QUESTIONS FOR SOIL & WATER BOARD CANDIDATES
NAME: Dennis Allen Benfield OFFICE SEEKING: Caldwell Soil & Water Conservation District supervisor AGE: 57
HOMETOWN: Born in Cleveland County, I lived in Hickory until age 26; I’ve lived in southern Caldwell County the last 31½ years.
OCCUPATION: “Semi-retired” Nationwide Insurance agent and community college instructor, sole employee of “Wordwizard Enterprises,” a one-man public relations company.
WHY ARE YOU SEEKING THIS OFFICE? WHAT MAKES YOU A QUALIFIED CANDIDATE? Leaders in my party wanted to see me stay active after my race earlier this year and suggested offices they wanted me to consider. One race would have complicated things for a friend of mine in the same race, so I chose Soil & Water. I’ve done a lot of homework, and I’m enthusiastic about preserving our most basic natural resources.
I believe I am as qualified, or more, than any other candidate. I grew up respecting the land and using it without detriment, spending my youth camping. I am a charter member of Essau Huppeday Lodge of the Order of the Arrow camping fraternity. I am an Eagle Scout, I have soil and water conservation merit badge, and I continue camping today. I own some wooded acreage, I’m building a greenhouse and I’ve taken college courses in plant propagation, greenhouse management and soils and fertilizers.
WHAT EXPERIENCE WILL YOU BRING TO THE BOARD? Besides growing up “on the land” and my college studies as an adult, I think my management style and experiences are important. I have more than 35 years in public relations and sales, “persuading” people to do what’s best for them. I have a good analytical mind, two university degrees and a “consensus” management style. I define a problem, seek a consensus and then move forward to the solution. If you hear people out, let them offer their solutions and let them become part of a greater consensus, then they have a “stake” in the agreed-to outcome. They’ll help make it happen. What I do is whatever “falls through the cracks,” “little things” that might be the difference between progress and inaction.
WHAT ARE THE GREATEST CHALLENGES FOR THE COUNTY RELATED TO SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION? Caldwell County is rural and mountainous. We must be ever-vigilant with farming, ranching, dairying, landscaping, nurseries, field crops, timbering and home construction. Our mountain slopes exacerbate the runoff of soils, herbicides and pesticides into our streams.
Our primary source of drinking water—Lake Rhodhiss—was recently declared “impaired” by the EPA. We’ve got to get serious about controlling storm water runoff there, adopting state standards and local ordinances, and working with other lake users. Cleaning up Lake Rhodhiss from its proven concentrations of pollutants is a priority.
Another major challenge will be a lower water table, due to our extended drought, while growing cities downstream require even greater quantities of water. If all the cities got all the water they want from the Catawba River, it would be dry. Two of the lakes around Charlotte already are pump out more daily than comes in.
WHAT ARE THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE COUNTY RELATED TO SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION? Our commissioners already are developing a huge new drinking water source in the Yadkin River basin in the fast-growing northern part of the county. We have approvals from seven environmental agencies for a model, high-tech reservoir on a 400-acre tract containing a natural aquifer producing some 6 million gallons a day. We’re about half-way in a 10-12 year process, designing and building being next, and it’s important that we finish.
Good water is vital to our future—jobs, population growth, tourism—so we must continue work along other major streams like Wilson’s Creek and Johns River. More than 10,000 visitors annually come to the new welcome center on Wilson’s Creek, and several, major “high end” retirement and resort communities are planned near Collettsville. If we can get voluntary compliance by farmers and others disturbing the soil to keep our streams clean, we can change the face of our county.
Instead of being known as the area that furniture abandoned in a global market, we can have great new industries that don’t pollute, new tourist and recreational opportunities along our streams and lakes, and beautiful mountain communities. All it takes is good planning and management, and everybody being willing to work together.
WHAT DO YOU OFFER THAT NO OTHER CANDIDATE CAN? My background—childhood experiences, physical handicap, two college degrees, communications and sales careers, management style—are all unique to me. I’ve tried to be humble in successes and smart enough to learn from failures. I try to live by the grace of God and by the gifts He gave me, including the challenges. That said, I believe my professional communications skills are an asset my opponents may not have.
I am probably the only Soil & Water candidate with a website, “dennisbenfield.com,” so I invite anyone who wants to know me better to visit there.
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