| Dennis
Husch |
| Aims
to Continue Work of the Current Council |
By Rebecca Plevin
Observer Staff Writer |
| If Vice Mayor Dennis Husch sometimes seems to focus on an
issue with unwavering intensity, it might be because he has
spent five years practicing the martial art of Kendo, which
he describes as "the Japanese art of the sword." |
| Husch said he got his first taste of the martial art while
stationed in Okinawa, Japan, from 1975 to 1976, and he and
his son picked it up in recent years. He trains at least once
a week and teaches a Kendo class for beginners at the Herndon
Community Center. He also competes and expects to receive
his black belt this fall. Practicing Kendo, he said, allows
him to "empty my head of all of this other stuff." |
| Some of the "other stuff" he is referring to stems from
his long tenure on the Herndon Town Council. "I bring something
to the council," Husch said, and cited his "broader perspective"
culled from 14 years on the council and about 40 years of
working with government operations and contracts. |
| Husch said the town faces many challenges in the years to
come, especially related to downtown development. He said
a local government can take a number of approaches to development,
and his goal is to have the town and a developer reach an
agreement on a plan that "serves the community as a whole
well, and the people who are directly affected." He said,
"If we can't get to that point, we're done. No harm, no foul
to the taxpayers." |
| To achieve that desired consensus, he said that developer
JPI needs to hold a series of town meetings to discuss residents'
needs on density, to display sketches, models and concepts,
and to listen to citizens' comments during each step of the
process. |
| The Town Council will also face a challenging economic situation
in the coming year, Husch said, since this year's budget will
be "tough," and the next one will be "absolutely brutal."
He said he questions using bond proceeds to bridge a budget
gap and is not comfortable borrowing money to fund operations.
Still, he said, "the last thing you want to do is raise the
tax rate," especially given the number of foreclosed homes
and flattening property values. |
| It will take "a lot of sharp pencils to figure out what
to do," he said. |
| Discussing immigration, Husch said Herndon was once viewed
as a "sanctuary town for illegal aliens," and thanks to the
current council's initiatives on illegal immigration, "the
perception has changed." He said individual programs like
287(g), increased vigilance on overcrowded homes and a resolution
preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining town business
licenses all contributed to the shift in Herndon's reputation. |
| "No one item makes anything substantial happen," he said,
but all the programs "changed the perception about Herndon." |
| Husch said he would like to see a set of rules established
that govern the renting of rooms in homes. Renting individual
rooms is okay, he said, "until it threatens a neighborhood
because everyone is renting a room." He said residents who
want to rent a room should have to fill out an application
and confirm that there is a working smoking detector and appropriate
parking. |
| The vice mayor said he is proud of the work the mayor and
Town Council have accomplished this term. "It has not been
an easy couple of years," he said. "Absolutely excellent work
was done" and there are "more good things to come," he said. |
