Photo courtesy of Tracie Marcum
Greenbriar Place resident Tracie Marcum is running for Chelsea City Council Place 4.
Greenbriar Place resident Tracie Marcum is running for Chelsea City Council Place 4. Marcum grew up in Wilsonville, and she and her husband John Marcum have been residents of Chelsea for almost 10 years.
Marcum said she has several reasons to run for office, but one of those is to help encourage citizen involvement in city politics.
“My main reason for running is just to give the people of Chelsea a voice in politics because I don’t feel like they’ve had that over the years,” Marcum said. “Just for the citizens to be able to talk about and tell us what their issues are.”
One way to boost engagement, Marcum said, is to update the city’s technology so that they can stream city council meetings. Streaming the meetings online would allow the opportunity to stay up-to-date for parents or citizens who have other commitments or cannot step away on Tuesday nights.
“Another reason I want to run is because I’ve been to the city council meetings over the years, and I’m not really happy with how things would go,” Marcum said.
Marcum said she has seen citizens or neighborhoods express their concerns to the council or at council meetings, and they do not get the help they request.
Marcum and her family live off of Old Highway 280 in Greenbriar Place, a subdivision that was abandoned by the developer. If elected to city council, she said she would aim to help the residents of neighborhoods and subdivisions that were abandoned by their developer.
Her goal is to also improve the overall quality of life in Chelsea by improving intersections, fixing roads and bringing more businesses to the city. She would like to bring focus back to the city’s master plan, which was created several years ago.
“I believe they paid a good bit for it, and it seems we’ve lost focus,” Marcum said.
Refocusing on that master plan would help develop the city and improve the overall look for Chelsea. Fixing road and intersection issues would help any residents who have to commute out of the city for work, and Marcum said building a better relationship with the Alabama Department of Transportation is an important step in making those improvements.
When it comes to recruiting new businesses, Marcum said she hopes to bring more sit down restaurants and other businesses for everyday needs.
“So all of our citizens don’t have to drive over the mountain for basic living necessities,” she said.
It is important to support the locally owned businesses, she said, and recruiting businesses would require a review to make sure they did not compete with existing stores.
Marcum’s current employment and past political experience are two things that helped prepare her for run for council, she said. Marcum works from home as Operations Manager for Exspend, Inc., which she said helps free up a lot of her time so that she can be a responsive member of the Chelsea City Council. She is also a field advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
As a field advocate, Marcum goes to Montgomery to help lobby for bills, something she said helped spark her political interest.
Marcum is also on the Board of Trustees and Athletic Boosters Association at Coosa Valley Academy, where her 13-year-old daughter Kennedy is a student. She also has a 20-year-old son, Taylor, who attends University of Alabama.
For more information about Marcum, visit Elect Tracie Blackmon-Marcum for Chelsea City Council Place 4 on Facebook. Marcum said she is also open to answering citizen questions via Facebook message.
Chelsea Park resident Tiffany Bittner is also running for Chelsea Council Place 4. The election for Chelsea mayor and five city council seats is scheduled for Aug. 23.
If you are running for city council or mayor in Chelsea, you can reach our community reporter Erica Techo at erica@starnespublishing.com.
