UPDATE: Your Questions Sent to Candidates Running for the McLean Community Center Board

UPDATE: McLean Patch just sent questions submitted by McLean residents and readers to the seven candidates running for the McLean Community Center Board. The election is May 19 at McLean Day.

The questions are:

1. What would you do with the $12 million budget surplus that has accrued over the past several years?

2. Are you in favor of devoting the surplus to a multi-use recreational facility in the center of McLean, and how to do you see that affecting use of the current community center and the Spring Hill Rec Center? How do you see a structure of this sort affecting downtown McLean traffic?

3. McLean residents agreed to tax themselves to pay for building the Community Center 35 years ago. Since the bonds that built MCC were paid off long ago, will you support dissolution of the Small  Tax District that imposes that extra tax on residents?

The adult candidates are incumbent board member Susan Bourgeois,  Laurelie Wallace. Incumbent board member Craig Richardson is running as a write-in candidate.

The youth candidates from the McLean High District: Craig McKenzie, of Langley High School. Malika Nimmagadda, a McLean High School student.

The youth candidates from the Langley High District: Drew Armstrong, of Langley High School. Will Ferrer, of George C. Marshall High School.

McLean Patch will publish the answers submitted by te candidates Thursday morning. The answers will appear exactly as McLean Patch received them.

ORIGINAL STORY: What questions do you want to ask the adult and youth candidates running for the McLean Community Center board?

Please send your questions to McLean Patch. We're preparing a Voters Guide for the May 19 Community Center Board elections for McLean residents.

We want to ask each of the  candidates three questions from voters. Please tell us what you want us to ask the candidates. Just post your question in the comments section of this story or send e-mail us: bobbi.bowman@patch.com. Deadline: 6 pm. Wednesday.

MCC board candidates usually hold no rallies and make no public appearances. This is a very low-key election. This may be your only chance to ask the candidates a question unless you see them in the grocery store.

We'll collect the questions and determine which are the  most popular. We will send them to the candidates Thursday morning and ask them to respond by 10 am. Tuesday.

McLean Patch will publish the questions Thursday and the candidates' answers beginning Wednesday morning. We will publish the answers verbatim. We will not edit them.

Two adults and four high school students are running for seats on the board that oversees the Community Center, levies taxes on McLean residents and operates a $18 million budget that includes a $12 million surplus that the board accumulated over the years by collecting more money than needed for center operations.

The adult candidates are incumbent board member Susan Bourgeois, seeking reelection to a second three-year term. The second  adult candidate is  Laurelie Wallace, who said in a press release that she is a McLean native. There was no other information available about her.

The youth candidates from the McLean High District: Craig McKenzie, of Langley high School. McKenzie served as the youth representative two years ago. Malika Nimmagadda, a McLean High School student.

The youth candidates from the Langley High District: Drew Armstrong, of Langley High School. Will Ferrer who is  the IB program at George C. Marshall High School.

Craig Richardson, whose board term expired this year first decided not to seek reelection, but later said he would run as a write-in candidate. In that case he would need only 10 votes to win.

The  11-member McLean Community Center board, made up of nine adults and two students, oversees the operation of the Community Center which houses the Alden Theater and the McLean Project for the Arts. The board sets a tax rate that is added to our taxes to help finance the center.

The election is held at McLean Day. May 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on at Lewinsville Park. Absentee ballots may be cast until May 16.