Friends-turned-opponents vying for Cornelius mayoral position

CORNELIUS, N.C. — For the first time in more than a decade, candidates are facing off to become the next mayor of Cornelius.

Commissioner Denis Bilodeau is going up against three-time incumbent Woody Washam for the position in a race between two Republicans.

Now home to more than 30,000, current mayor Washam remembers when the town’s population barely reached a thousand. Washam is the hometown candidate looking to bag a historic fourth term and hoping to lead the city into the future through downtown revitalization.

“It’s doing exactly what our town intended it to do and what our voters intended it to do. It’s bringing some wonderful, wonderful amenities to our downtown, which really needed some love. It really did. So our downtown is coming back,” Washam said.

Washam’s friend turned political opponent, Bilodeau, agrees that updates to downtown are important. In addition to public safety, Bilodeau would like to see improvements to road projects using local money instead of heavily relying on the state.

“There are things within our town and our budget that we can do and accelerate. And that’s really where I’d like to go,” Bilodeau said. “In the six years that I’ve been a commissioner, we’ve had a surplus in our general fund surplus to our budget every year. What happens with that money many times is that it sits in a low-interest account, you know, so we’re not really deploying that capital as strongly as we should.”

>> Watch the full interview in the video at the top of the page.

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