Cromartie to run for re-election
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 2, 2015 1:46 PM
Full Size
Ed Cromartie
Wayne County District 2 Commissioner Ed Cromartie, 69, of Mount Olive has filed for re-election.
Cromartie, a Democrat, who was first appointed to fill the unexpired term of the late J.D. Evans, was among the first to file Tuesday during the opening of the filing period for the March 15 primary.
Evans won re-election in November 2012 and was sworn into office, but died before the new board took over. Cromartie was nominated by the Wayne County Democratic Party to fill the first two years of Evans' term and was unanimously appointed by commissioners.
State law requires that the final two years must be decided by an election. Cromartie, a retired educator, was the only candidate to file for the seat for the November 2014 election.
The filing period for the March 15 primary opened at noon Tuesday and will close at noon on Monday, Dec. 21.
"I have worked to maintain a positive bipartisan relationship with my fellow commissioners," said Cromartie, who has served as board vice chairman for the past two years.
He and his wife, Hilda P. Cromartie, a retired Wayne County school principal, have two children and their spouses, all of whom are employed in the county school system.
"While I will continue to work with my colleagues to improve roads, industry recruitment, building projects and safety countywide through support of law enforcement, my major goal for this term will be to work for the improvement of our citizens' daily life.
"There are things left undone on my want list. I preface this by saying we have done a lot of those big ticket items that I am proud of -- the schools; helping with economic development; promoting better roads, supporting the Sheriff's Office. All of that infrastructure stuff, all of that economic development stuff is well on its way. But there is a people situation that if I was only going to serve one more year, it would have to be involved with just people."
Cromartie said he is an auto body repairman and painter by trade -- a skilled profession.
Cromartie said that one of his main concerns are youths over the age of 18 who, for whatever reason, left school and did not return.
"We have got to do something better about that," he said. "This is not to take anything away from the goals and objectives of the community college, but I just happen to feel that skills are going to have to be brought closer to the neighborhood where the people live who need the skills.
"You can have all of the transportation in the world and a great pretty building that is 25 miles away and it is not going to be accessible, and they are not going to get there and five years from now we will have this same conversation, and they still won't be skilled or trained. They will still be walking the street unemployed."
Cromartie said he would like to see programs offering those skills training in the county's municipalities.
"If there is only more thing that I could get done, that would have to be it," he said.
Cromartie said he wants to see education continue to improve in the county, but that he wants to remain cautious about "dabbling over in school business" because there is a line commissioners do not need to cross.
However, he said he has been made aware of school facility needs in the southern end of the county including ways to beautify the campuses more, particularly Southern Wayne High School.
Also, the county needs to develop some way to get parents back out to the schools so they will be more aware of what their children are doing and not doing.
Another aspect is to provide parents with the information necessary to help their children with their homework, Cromartie said.
That could mean the county will need to commit some money for such a project, he said.
Also, the county is going to need to compete with surrounding counties when it comes to teacher supplements in order to retain teachers, Cromartie said.
Cromartie said he also supports increasing the minimum wage.
As for the county budget and tax rate, Cromartie said he does not think the county can "stand to go down any more."
Cromartie said he is conservative when it comes to spending. The county has spent some money, but has spent it well, he said.
The board has accomplished much over the past three years including the new Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive, new middle schools in the Grantham and Spring Creek and the planning for the new agriculture and convention center, he said.
He said he would like to see the county to continue to fund the WATCH van, literacy programs for adults and programs for senior citizens.
Cromartie taught in his native Cumberland County's public schools. He has been an educational consultant for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction; vocational education director for both the Goldsboro and Wayne County public school systems, as well as assistant principal, principal, athletic director and assistant superintendent for human resources.
Cromartie is a 1964 graduate of Anne Chestnutt High School and attended Fayetteville Technical Community College. He earned a bachelor's degree from Fayetteville State University in 1979 and a master's degree from the university in 1983.
He earned an EDS-Superintendent Certificate in 1987 from East Carolina University.