Should Villa Rica Mayor Jeff Reese choose to seek reelection this year, he will likely have at least one challenger on ballots in November.
41-year old mother of two and Marine Corp. veteran Dominique Conteh has told WLBB radio this week she plans to qualify to run in the mayorÂ’s race when qualifying opens later this month. Conteh is currently a professor with the Georgia Military College where she has worked for 16 years.
Discussing her campaign platform, Conteh said as demographics change in the City of Gold, the city has to do more to change with the population. That includes downtown, where Conteh says the area has not yet accommodated the changing culture as far as restaurants and other activities.
“I feel that downtown needs to be more vibrant. The median age for my neighbors who have children are in their early thirties, which means most of us have young communal age children. Respectfully, there is not a lot of activities for our youth other than to go to Gold Dust if you are older to play basketball. Of course the younger children who are usually in after-school care, that cuts off at 12, so there isn’t anything in between that for 13 to 18-year olds,” said Conteh.
Conteh suggests the city develop a new group for those youth and their families.
Conteh is also concerned about adding additional parking to Villa RicaÂ’s downtown and believes homelessness in Villa Rica is on the rise. She believes veterans are among those being affected.
“There should not be a homeless vet anywhere, let alone in Villa Rica because we are such a loving town and community but I don’t feel that there is enough resources to attain that. We need to address that more and decrease that.”
Qualifying for a number of local municipal races including mayor of Villa Rica begins August 19.
