Joshua McKelvey is challenging Keith Dalton for the Post 3 East Ward seat on the Covington City Council.
Why does he want to run for office: “I want to run because I think I can offer something better – a different perspective to the city of Covington,” McKelvey said. “I grew up down the street in Conyers. I saw what happened when we threw up walls and said, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna develop. We’re not gonna grow anymore.’ And then some of those same people that fought it for years and years hightailed it out of there after we lost some of the economic development opportunities that we needed in Rockdale. We lost our sense of community there, at least from my perspective. After two years that’s kind of started to come back after new people moved in they have a grown a sense of community there.”
What does he think you can do better than incumbent, Keith Dalton: “....You got people that were born and raised here and don’t want anything to change,” McKelvey said. “I can look at things differently with an open mind. I don’t wanna just listen to a few people. I wanna listen to everyone in my district and represent them all and analyze the situation and try to do what’s best for the city of Covington.”
What can McKelvey do to make the city better: McKelvey plans to focus on economic development, as well as being more open to outside investors and people that live outside Covington so that they know that Covington is a great place to work, live, shop and play. McKelvey would like to bring a food truck park, more dining options and more higher quality fresh/organic options for shoppers. McKelvey also plans to focus on bringing more things for the youth and the children to do so that they don’t leave and take tax dollars elsewhere.
What he does: McKelvey works as an implementation consultant for a software company called Tyler Technologies in their local government division. He has also worked for municipal governments in the past.
Family: McKelvey has been married for two years. He has a 1-year-old daughter and a son due at the end of November.
