By Simon Albaugh \u2013 Yemeni American News<\/p>\n
Dearborn, Mich. \u2013 In the current midterm campaigns, seats for the Wayne County Commission are up for election. In District 13, Ann Clark, Mohammad Mubarak, Abdullatif Al-Jahmi and Sam Baydoun are all vying for one seat that\u2019s been held by Baydoun since 2018.<\/p>\n
The Wayne County Commission, Baydoun explains, is like the city council of Wayne County. With County Executive Warren C. Evans acting as Mayor of the county, the commissioners are asked to vote on initiatives for directing funds throughout Wayne County.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, not too many people knew the role of the Wayne County Commissioners until we hit the pandemic and we started talking about reporting the cases on a daily basis,\u201d Baydoun said. \u201cBut our role is to promote our communities and work with the local governments to make sure that we have the resources they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baydoun, who\u2019s served as County Commissioner for Dearborn and Allen Park for the past four years, sat down with the Yemeni American News to talk about what he sees as the most pressing issues for Wayne County and, more specifically, his home District 13.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Baydoun talked about the progress and proceeding needs for infrastructure in Dearborn. A major focus for many residents has been the condition of the aging roads, especially Miller Road and Miller Bridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was first elected in 2018, Miller Road and the Miller Bridge were somewhere on the bottom of the priority list,\u201d Baydoun said. \u201cSo I kept bringing it up. I carried this banner of Miller Road and Miller Bridge. Finally, they elevated it to the top of the list. Now we have Miller Road being completely redone as we speak. And the Miller Bridge will be under construction starting next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fixing and maintaining roads is at the root of the Wayne County Commission\u2019s purpose. Wayne County oversees over 1,400 miles of roads throughout the county, along with 460 miles of Michigan Department of Transportation roads that the County Commission also maintains. These are kept up through requesting funds from the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to bring as much money as we can to Wayne County to keep up the infrastructure,\u201d Baydoun said.<\/p>\n
However, coming out of a global pandemic means that the role of County Commissioners is shifting back from what was a different purpose. Throughout the pandemic, Baydoun says that he and others needed to fulfill the unprecedented needs of the county throughout the various COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns.<\/p>\n
Baydoun was part of a group of leaders who helped to publicize opportunities throughout the pandemic. Grants, loans and stimulus opportunities were all publicized throughout the lockdowns in Dearborn. But even before that, Baydoun says he was doing everything he could.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a vacuum of leadership, if you will, when the pandemic started,\u201d Baydoun said. \u201cSo I hit the ground running and I started informing the residents in the City of Dearborn and Allen Park about COVID and about how to keep friends and family safe. We also did testing sites in Dearborn and vaccine sites.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I hope we never go through this in our lifetime again. But I did put out a lot of information during the pandemic in Arabic and in English, because we have a large concentration of Arab Americans in Dearborn.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make matters more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic, what was considered a 100-year storm broke down the sewer system in the Southend of Dearborn last year, allowing sewer water to damage homes and property in the lower portions of Dearborn.<\/p>\n
The 100-year storms are becoming much more common due to what a vast majority of scientists claim is human-caused climate change. Meaning that permanent solutions to more severe weather patterns need to be brought to practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother challenge is going to be the stormwater issue,\u201d Baydoun said. \u201cI also serve on a tri-county summit for water infrastructure. We\u2019re looking into possibilities for how we can remedy things like last year when we had major flooding here in Dearborn\u2026 We need to address the stormwater issue in the City of Dearborn and throughout Wayne County.\u201d<\/p>\n
These challenges show some difficult experience for a second-term commissioner. Throughout his work of representing the 13th<\/sup> District in Wayne County Government, he\u2019s also been a vocal advocate for Arab Americans, even spearheading resolutions celebrating Arab American Heritage, along with his infrastructure initiatives.<\/p>\n