Jackie Ward running for Pocomoke City mayor
POCOMOKE CITY, Md. – Three candidates now vying for mayor of Pocomoke City, a town that’s seen its fair share of controversy. 47 ABC recently sat down with one of those candidates, Jackie Ward, to hear what her top priorities would be if she’s elected in April.
“I haven’t lived here my whole life but I live here now and I love it. This is my home and I want to make it a good place for all of us to live,” says Jackie Ward, a District One resident running for mayor.
Thirty-year old Jackie Ward is throwing her hat in the ring to become Pocomoke City’s next mayor, or as she says a “Mayor For All”.
“I’m here as a mayor for all people. All ages. All backgrounds. I’m here to help unite and move everyone forward together.”
The Baltimore area native has called Pocomoke home for the last three years. “We’ve had some issues with tension and disagreements in Pocomoke and I think my mediation skills and leadership skills together would help ease those tensions.”
Among the disagreements: racial discrimination lawsuits ending in a federal mandate for change. “How I would want to move forward is learning from all of those things in the past. We need to learn from it. And create more structure, accountability and transparency moving forward.”
As the Worcester County Health Department planner, she is already responsible for coming up with comprehensive plans. She plans to use her background in that field to improve the quality of life in the town. “With water quality, it’s been a historic ongoing problem. The pipes are being fixed but if I become mayor one of the first things I’ll be doing is going in an talking to the different department heads,” says Ward. “Looking at the process as a whole and not coming in assuming I know everything. I want to learn from everyone.”
Staying with that “big picture,” Ward says there’s more to Pocomoke than just Main Street adding there are plenty of grant opportunities to help the area prosper.
“You’re going to have to look at what other industries or amenities can we bring to provide other sorts of jobs because you need a variety of jobs to serve people who are working in the area as well as a variety of resources and things to draw people to the are.”
Jackie Ward is hosting a Meet and Greet on Wednesday, February 26th at 7 p.m. at the Pocomoke Library.
Since this story aired, 47 ABC also sat down with one of the other mayoral candidates, Susan Marshall Harrison. Click here to see that story. On Thursday, 47 ABC sat down with Mike Shannon who is also running for mayor. Click here to see that story.
Pocomoke’s current mayor, Bruce Morrison, is not seeking re-election. This comes after he suffered a health complication in 2017 that restricted his ability to speak.
A Municipal Election will be held at the Pocomoke Library at 301 Market Street on Tuesday, April 7th to elect a City Councilmember for District 3 and also for the Mayoral seat. The last day to register to vote is March 9th. The term of office will be for three years beginning on the second Tuesday in April 2020. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. Absentee ballots are available by first contacting the City Clerk at City Hall at 410-957-1333. Absentee ballots must be postmarked no later than Friday, April 3rd and mailed to: Pocomoke City Board of Elections, PO Box 29, Pocomoke City, MD 21851.
