Haraway, Strong reelected to second terms uncontested
Madison County Commissioner Steve Haraway of Madison (Record Photo/ Lindsay Vaught)
MADISON- On election day Nov. 8 county commissioner Steve Haraway of Madison was re-elected to another four year term. Haraway was uncontested as were commission chairman Dale Strong of Monrovia and Phil Vandiver of Harvest. They will be sworn in on Nov. 16 during the commission meeting at the courthouse.
“I’m real excited and appreciative to the people in District 2 because they felt like we had done a good job the first four years,” Haraway said. “We didn’t have an opponent in the primary or general election so I didn’t do much advertising but I was still required to submit disclosure forms on campaign finance.”
Haraway was on Madison City Council before winning the newly formed District 2 that encompasses all of Madison and parts of Huntsville including Research Park, UAH, and neighborhoods to Jordan Lane.
“We have done a lot of work with Madison on paving roads. They were able to take advantage of the county’s paving contract and got a cost savings of about 25%.”
In times of emergency like ice or snow storms Haraway can be found running heavy equipment to help clear the roads.
“I had a business where we did site preparation and tractors, bushogs, dump trucks I can operate those if I need to and help our guys out. I have two guys here in Madison that do grass cutting, the Triana boat ramp and the right of ways.”
Among the projects Haraway is working on is the interchange for Town Madison.
“We have just got final approval for interchange access. We had a public involvement meeting and a finding of no impact on the environment so once public comments and questions are answered the final design can be done. There are several companies that are waiting on the interchange to go ahead with their plans.”
Haraway did a lot of work on the design and funding for the County Line Road interchange when he was on city council and as county commissioner.
“It is saving people anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour from exiting at Wall Triana especially during rush hour.”
Also reelected uncontested was Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong.
“Dale has done a really good job at the courthouse making decisions we had to make to improve our software program that was outdated. We invested in New World, a system that helps us to be more accountable financially. We implemented Chronos system for timekeeping.”
In the future “we have to continue to work on the infrastucture including Martin Road and we are working with our counterparts in Limestone County to resolve the school tax issue and working with the school system to help out. Madison will have to build a new elementary school.”
