Ren´e McDermott has registered to run for Polk County commissioner.&bsp; &bsp;

McDermott lives in Tryon Township (outside Tryon) and has been active in many community activities.&bsp; Perhaps most important, she says, she has served on Polk County governmental committees including the Land Use Planning Committee, the Ground Water Sustainability Project, and the Ridgetop and Mountainside Preservation Group.

In addition, McDermott has long served on the board of the Pacolet Area Conservancy (PAC), the local land trust that has as its slogan &dquo;Saving the Places You Love.&dquo;&bsp; She is a past president of PAC. &bsp;

What keeps her most busy, she says, is preparing drafts of conservation agreements, the voluntary agreements between landowners and PAC that preserve the conservation values (natural resources, farm lands, animals and plants) of our area.

McDermott says she is running for county commissioner because she loves Polk County.&bsp; She says she wants to carry out the wishes of the people of Polk County as expressed in the Visioning Committee&squo;s recent survey and in the Land Use Planning Committee&squo;s surveys of several years ago.&bsp; They all came to the same conclusions, McDermott notes.

Ren´e McDermott says she understands the need to keep taxes low in Polk County, so that farmers can keep farming and so that people aren&squo;t driven off their land by high property taxes. &bsp;

&dquo;One of the best ways to keep taxes from rising,&dquo; says McDermott, &dquo;is to keep Polk County rural.&dquo; According to McDermott, &dquo;Farms, forests and open space keep taxes low.&dquo;

&dquo;I have no agenda except to do my very best for Polk County.&bsp; I&squo;m a good listener, and I want to listen to what all the people here say,&dquo; says McDermott.

McDermott, a retired environmental attorney, former county attorney, and mediator, holds a B.A. in English and journalism, an M.A. in mathematics and science education and a J.D. (law) degree.&bsp;