Alex King is a candidate for Pittsboro Town Council. His family moved to Pittsboro when he was seven years old, and he has been a proud member of the community ever since. He attended Pittsboro Elementary, Tri-West Middle School, and graduated from Tri-West High School in 2018.

Alex is a member of New Brunswick Church of Christ and values the strong sense of community that defines Pittsboro.

He is running for town council with a focus on keeping Pittsboro affordable for residents and preserving the town’s character by limiting unnecessary commercial and industrial development.

Why are you running? 

I'm running because I've always lived in the community. So when I was five, we moved out to Pittsboro. I went to Pittsboro Elementary, I went to Tri-West Middle School, and I went to Tri-West High School. So I've always had a lot of pride in the community, so I care what's going on going forward, whether it's development or whether it's bettering the lives of the residents who are already here.

How will you be a voice for constituents?

You get elected to represent the majority, and that's what the vote reflects. So if I'm elected, obviously I'm going to have my own beliefs and ways that I think things should be handled, but I've been very active on Facebook and trying to get out into the community recently so I can get those opinions from residents, so people know what I stand for and what I believe in. 

What role do you think the state government should play at the local level?

I think the state government should cover a lot of things, like, whether that's safety issues, or covering the cost of roads or certain infrastructure items. I think the state government needs to come in and play really a broad role to kind of just set the standard for how the town should operate. But as far as specific items that will affect directly affect the people the town and the town's character, I think those things need to be handled by the town. 

What sort of development do you think your town needs, if any?

 If development is going to come to Pittsboro, it's important that we keep it very specific. So it needs to be development from companies that are going to care about Pittsboro. They're going to care about our school system. I don't want to bring in these big commercial corporate companies that don't care about Pittsboro and are just going to come here to make their money, and yeah, they'll give their money to the TIF funds and whatnot to help cover the infrastructure strain. 

Are you familiar with the current Town Manager? Do you see the two of you working well together?

I do not know Mr. Love very well. To be honest, I've heard a lot of good things about him. He's a hard worker, and the town would be hurting without him. That's kind of on my list of things to do, is reach out to him and still get to know him.

What do you think is the biggest concern your residents have?

Development is a big concern. People want to keep the culture and the character of Pittsboro, so we don't want a lot of big warehouses going up on the north side of the interstate. 

People also have concerns about affordability, so, like, our water bill just went up 25% so that's. . . going to be a big voting issue going into this primary. . .people don't want to have to worry about price hikes. 

I think going forward, there are ways to handle the like the water bill specifically, could have been handled better, like gradually increasing it over the years, which I believe is their plan to do now, which is good, but to be honest, it should have already been done. 

What are your thoughts on data centers?

I think overall, data centers obviously have a very negative rep, and data centers would fall into the category that I mentioned before that I don't want here in Pittsboro.

How are you currently involved in your community?

I go to church at New Brunswick Church of Christ, which is between Lizton and Lebanon. So it's not in Pittsboro, but a lot of the members of the Church live in Pittsboro and are affected by what's happening in Pittsboro. 

Other than that. . .I try to get out to local restaurants as much as possible. The other day, I was able to attend and offer my help to the Easter egg hunt going on in Pittsboro that was put on by the sorority. So that was good to be able to be a part of.