Justin Conrad isn't running in my district but he is running in Guilford County District 3. The Conrad family business, Libby Hills Seafood does operate it's Summit Avenue restaurant in my neighborhood and I remember a time when they operated a second restaurant on McConnell Road, also in what is called East Greenboro.
Back then we called it the Bessemer community, not after Bessemer Avenue but after Sir Henry Bessemer, so named because of the steel mill that was once located where the Cone Brothers later built Revolution Mill. It was for the steel mill that Governor John Motley Morehead first brought the railroads to Greensboro. It was the Union Army and the Civil War that prevented Greensboro from becoming a steel town instead of a cotton town. Anyway, back to Justin.
Justin's family has long been in the restaurant business and yes that's not the kind of economic development I'm usually saying Greensboro needs but when I walk into the Libby Hills Seafood Restaurant on Summit Avenue I see people who have been working there 20, 30 or more years. Some of the ladies tell me they changed Justin's diapers when he was a baby and if you ask Justin he'll not deny it is so. These days, there's something to be said for a business-- especially what is traditionally a low wage business-- that keeps employees for a lifetime. And while I'm not privy to how Justin runs the family business that in itself tells me he values his employees in a way that too many of today's employers do not.
I cannot help but believe that Justin would also value his constituents in the same way.
Justin also owns and operates a successful seafood distribution business. Previously he was the owner of Bay Hill Construction, a company that developed and built restaurants for Libby Hills and others but when hard times hit and the company could no longer make ends meet, rather than dream up some incentive scheme to hit up the taxpayers Justin made the hard choice of closing the doors.
And believe me, if anyone has enough influence over the Greensboro City Council and Guilford County Commissioners to milk them out of a few million in tax dollars it would be Justin Conrad whose family has been in business here for 3 generations. But no, Justin took the financial hit and did the right thing.
Justin is a conservative as I am a liberal. It could be that if he someday seeks higher office there might be issues I could oppose him on but as a Guilford County Commissioner his job will be to guard against corruption, wasteful spending and fraud while providing necessary public services and real economic development opportunities-- as a liberal I see no immediate conflict. If and when the day comes that Justin Conrad and I disagree I'll be quick to tell my readers just that but as of right now I'm hoping the voters of Guilford County District 3 will support Justin Conrad for District 3.
