By Miles Layton

CAMDEN — Dave Chick says he’s not running for Camden County Commission to climb a political ladder. He’s running, he says, to draw a line in the sand.

Chick, 49, will appear on the November general election ballot as an at-large candidate for the Camden County Commission after securing the required signatures to run as an unaffiliated candidate. Though not running under a party banner, he describes himself plainly.

“I’m a conservative,” Chick said of his candidacy, emphasizing the values that have defined his public involvement over the past two years.

The Albemarle Observer has been following interesting candidates across the region — more profiles to come.

Chick captured our attention after a passionate speech he made in December at a Camden County Commission meeting.

“In times where growth is often seen as progress, where bigger is assumed to be better, and where developers promise prosperity if we only let them in,” he said to the commission, “what they fail to understand is that what we already have here is valuable and worth protecting.”

Chick described Camden’s identity as something money can’t replicate. “Our small town isn’t just a place on a map, it’s a way of life,” he said. “It’s neighbors who know each other by name, local businesses who remember your order, and wide open spaces that give our kids room to grow up and be grounded.”

Now that’s something — AGREED — the Albemarle Observer sat down with Chick following his successful petition effort — a milestone he described as relief, but only the beginning.

“I could take a breath,” Chick said of learning he had qualified for the ballot. “Since this kind of came up at the end of last year my wife and I have been running non stop.”

Chick and his wife, Nicole, spent weeks gathering signatures during what he called less-than-ideal conditions.

“We faced some challenges with the Christmas Holiday and New Years being able to get out and meet people,” he said. “I also battled a flu or something for like two and a half weeks at the beginning of the New Year. Then it seemed like every weekend in January we were facing bitter cold temperatures with the threat of a Snowmageddon that kept a lot of us home.”

Supporters stepped in to help.

“Thankfully we had several people support us and assisted with collecting signatures,” Chick said. “The very next thought was ‘this just gets me to the starting line and the race is about to begin.’”

Subscribe — it’s free!

‘I Need to Get Up There and Fight’

Chick’s candidacy comes after what he describes as two years of regular attendance and public comment at commission meetings, where he has emerged as one of the more vocal critics of large-scale residential development proposals in the county.

“I want to preserve Camden County,” Chick said when asked what inspired him to run. “I myself felt like after two years of attending meetings and the amount of engagement that Nicole and I have already committed to as far as speaking out, I need to get up there and fight for what I believe in.”

In previous remarks before commissioners, Chick warned of what he called a threat to Camden’s rural character. In the interview, he expanded on that concern.

“First and foremost is to make the people of Camden County feel like they are heard again,” Chick said of his priorities if elected. “That their struggles matter, the situations they face matter.”

He said a common refrain has emerged in his conversations with residents.

“I have spoken to hundreds and the theme is the same. ‘It doesn’t matter, they just do what they want to do…’ I desperately want to change that,” Chick said. “I know and understand that not everything can be changed and may not always go the way one person wants it to but I would love to make them feel like they got a fair shake at it and that it wouldn’t be a lost cause or foregone conclusion.”

‘Keep Camden Camden’

For Chick, the central issue is growth — specifically, what he views as unchecked, high-density development that threatens the county’s rural identity.

“I also want to fight to preserve Camden,” he said. “Like I said in my speech to the commissioners that we need to keep Camden Camden!”

He argues that once farmland and open space are converted into dense subdivisions, the change is permanent.

“Every piece of ground that’s turned into large dense neighborhoods that in turn drags large retail to the area is lost forever. We can’t get it back,” Chick said.

He warned that the very qualities the county promotes — wildlife, farms, and open land — are at risk.

“Everything this county celebrates with murals and pictures on the website celebrating all the wild life, farms, and the rural way of life will die very fast because once high density starts there is always the next one up mentality,” he said.

Chick says he wants families moving to Camden to have room to breathe.

“I would love for a family to move here with enough property to enjoy space. Not just a drive way and a square patch of grass,” he said. “I would love to have kids grow up with a rural background where they can hunt, fish, shoot guns, homesteading and everything else that comes with it.”

He contrasted that vision with what he sees happening in more developed parts of neighboring states.

“I have friends in Virginia that are driving 3 hours to get to a spot to do all the things kids could do right here at their home county!” Chick said.

‘Fully Against It’

Asked directly about his position on large-scale property development, Chick did not hedge.

“I am fully against it,” he said. “It’s not a way of life that fits Camden.”

He said he has yet to meet a resident who moved to Camden seeking rapid growth.

“It’s ok to be a small town,” Chick said. “I have heard from hundreds of people and it scares them to see and hear what’s coming (already approved) not just what’s around the corner.”

“I didn’t hear one person say that we moved here because we know growth is coming,” he continued. “Everyone’s expectation when buying in Camden is they are escaping the very thing that certain areas of the county are starting to become.”

While acknowledging that the county cannot dictate who sells land to whom, Chick believes local government still has tools available.

“I know as a County we can’t control the selling of land parcels and whom they are sold to but we can make a UDO that preserves the very nature of our town,” he said, referring to the county’s Unified Development Ordinance. “That is something that has failed to be done still at this point of the game. That needs to be a priority!”

Rooted in Community

Chick has worked for 22 years as a Network Technology Technician with Cox Communications. He and his wife, Nicole, have built their life in Camden County, raising two sons — Tyler Hawley, 27, and Ryan Hawley, 22.

Asked what he likes best about living in Camden County and northeastern North Carolina, Chick did not mention policy or politics. He spoke about people.

“The small town atmosphere,” he said. “When we moved here we quickly fell in love with the people and all the animals and open nature that surrounds us.”

He praised the absence of large commercial chains and the presence of small businesses where customers are known by name.

“The fact that there is not a big commercial business here and all the small business owners that remember you and your situations every time you go to their business, just makes you feel human again,” Chick said.

He described spontaneous conversations at local establishments — interactions he fears could vanish with rapid growth.

“It reminds you that you can look at people and smile and that you can have a conversation with the table next to you and you’re not worried about what kind of reaction you may get,” he said. “In other areas the hustle and bustle of everyday life in high populated areas it just seems everyone is in a bubble and just stay in your bubble, very little interaction.”

“I can’t tell you how many people in this county I have become ‘friends’ with just because we said hello to each other at the counter,” Chick added.

He ticked off familiar stops: “At Belcross Biscuit Company you spent 10 mins catching up and sharing stories from the week previous, then going to Little Riddle Market and catching up with the owners and then the neighbor down the road comes in and the next thing you know you have been a 30 min conversation.”

“Then stopping by Topside on the way home and seeing the regulars there or even someone you never met before… sitting on the bench and I got 80 years of Camden/family history from a widow,” he said.

“These are all stories that will fade into the ether if we don’t preserve this county.”

A Grassroots Candidacy

Chick’s decision to run unaffiliated required a petition drive rather than a primary contest, a path that he said reflects both his independence and his reliance on grassroots support.

“I want to preserve Camden County,” he repeated. “I need to get up there and fight for what I believe in.”

He acknowledges that the race will not be easy.

“This just gets me to the starting line and the race is about to begin,” he said.

As development pressures continue to mount across northeastern North Carolina, Camden County faces choices about zoning, density, and infrastructure that will shape its future for decades. Chick is staking his campaign on the argument that once rural land is gone, it is gone for good.

“Every piece of ground that’s turned into large dense neighborhoods… is lost forever,” he said.

For Chick, the campaign is less about growth statistics and more about a way of life.

“It’s ok to be a small town,” he said.

In November, Camden County voters will decide whether that message resonates strongly enough to send him to the commission dais — not just as a critic in the audience, but as a vote at the table.