On May 6, 2025, I was re-elected to a second term with 72% of total votes cast. When my wife and I first rolled into town in the spring of 2005 to take a sneak peak, the night before the realtor’s open house, at the blue house atop Spout Hill, we found Main Street to be quaint and charming. It felt familiar in some way. We immediately fell in love with that blue house and this Main Street. Though
it was the Queen Anne Victorian built in 1897 that drew us to Sykesville, it became clear that the house needed revitalization and so did the town. For the next eleven years (and counting), we restored the big blue house, making use of every drop of elbow grease and waking hour we could find. In 2006 and 2008, despite being in the thick of it, covered in sawdust and paint stripper, we accepted an invitation for our home to be featured in the Sykesville Historic House Tour, a fundraiser sponsored by the Gate House Museum. In 2010 we shifted our focus to the town and in 2011 I joined a grass roots organization, that eventually became the Main Street Association a year later, and was Chair of its Design Committee for four years. In 2012 I sought a position on the Historic District Commission and was appointed commissioner soon thereafter. I ran for town council in 2013 and recently completed my second four-year term. What has been accomplished in Sykesville in the last decade is astounding given the odds that have been stacked against us and the fact that we are a small populous. These are the accomplishments of which I am most proud, but outside of my undying obsession with Sykesville, I do have a "day job" and other talents and skills that translate well to being engaged with local initiatives:
In 1997 I obtained my BS in Occupational Therapy from Elizabethtown College (where I met my wife) and have been a practicing licensed and registered occupational therapist in the State of Maryland since 1997. I am a nationally certified assistive technology professional and hold an Executive Certificate in Home Modifications. Although my skillset within my OT role is broad, my primary area of focus is aging in place and home access modifications. In that vein, I became a nationally certified and state licensed home inspector in 2015 to improve my knowledge and skills with home modifications as well as allow me to practice my truest love, home renovation and restoration. In 2018 and 2019, I rehabilitated two homes in Carroll County, one of which made a neglected house home to a new Sykesville family. Throughout my professional career, I have been my own boss, an independent contractor for the Maryland Department of Health and an employee of a private company—all at one time. Now, self-employed, I am finally in a position to devote the time needed to lead the Sykesville Town Council as its mayor.
