Wingard's Ward 1 Race Might Be Over

Councilor Eric Wingard (Ward 1), hopes to get a shot at four more years on Hyattsville's City Council by emphasizing education, Route 1 development needs, and municipal management.

That is, if he decides to continue his campaign.

In a message sent to Hyattsville Patch earlier this week, Wingard said there is a possibility he might be moving away—suddenly.

"Ward 1 may have one less candidate running by Thursday," wrote Wingard in a text message sent on April 2. "Had a meeting at work today and have a personal opportunity that I cannot pas up and I could be leaving the City of Hyattsville."

Yesterday evening, Wingard said that an announcement about his campaign would released sometime this afternoon. As of this writing, no announcement has been made.

As it stands right now, Wingard would be unable to withdraw from the race officially. The deadline to withdraw was last Friday. The list of candidates were certified by the city council at Monday's meeting, and the ballots for the , are set to be printed. 

Wingard, a resident of 4111 Decateur Street, has only served two years on the city council. He was first elected in 2011 in a special election to fill a vacancy left by Mayor Marc Tartaro's election to his current post. 

Before that, in 2001, Wingard lost a four way race to incumbent Doug Dudrow which included a pre-mayoral Marc Tartaro and Karen Pope.

Wingard faces a three-way race against Bart Lawrence and William Jenne to reclaim his seat.

In an interview earlier this week, Wingard outlined a campaign platform which would focus on encouraging continued redevelopment of the downtown Route 1 corridor, advocating for more municipal involvement in the city's public schools, and continuing efforts to reform and stabilize the city administration. 

"A lot of my focus has been on advocating STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] programs in education," said Wingard, who has built a career in the aerospace industry. "There is a push in the Route 1 community to send your kid to the local elementary school. Even though it's out of the city council's area of primary responsibility, there is a lot we can do to help the schools."

Wingard, drawing on past experience sponsoring STEM programs at Hyattsville Elementary School and Saint Jerome Academy, said that the city government could find creative ways to help fund programs at the local schools. 

Filling high-level administrative vacancies, said Wingard, is the biggest issue facing the city right now. But he said that the vacancies are well on their way to getting filled, and said the city has made significant strides in this area with the recent hire of a public works director and progress on the city administrator search.

After that, Wingard said he wanted to focus on the city's finances, in particular finding a way to maintain city services in the face of reduced property tax revenues without raising taxes. 

Wingard, a 14-year resident of the city, said that the biggest issue facing his ward is finding a way to provide adequate parking for visitors, residents and businesses in the Hyattsville Arts District, and said he was in favor of constructing a parking garage on eastern Hamilton Street. Last year, the city council voted to pursue eminent domain proceedings against two property owners at the far eastern end of Hyattsville's Hamilton Street to acquire land for a parking facility.

"Finding a long-term solution to that is pretty important to helping this district grow and stabilize," said Wingard. 

Wingard was born in Washington and raised in Annapolis. His father was a sub hunter aboard a US Navy P3, conducting submarine patrols of the Atlantic Ocean during the Vietnam war, patrolling a stretch of the Atlantic between Iceland and England. 

In 1987, Wingard graduated from Antioch Christian School in Annapolis. He then began a college career which saw him graduate with a double major in engineering and political science from Frostburg State University in Western Maryland. 

After graduation, Wingard began a career in the aerospace and defense industry. He now works as a senior quality engineer for Risk Management Corporation at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. 

"We basically ensure mission, management and technical support for deep space missions," said Wingard. "A lot of what I do is making sure that as we go through our build process, that we're following rigid guidelines."

One of the projects Wingard is currently working on is NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), set to launch in August. The LADEE probe will orbit the moon, gathering information about its faint atmosphere before further lunar exploration forever alters it.

Last year, Wingard missed 16 city council meetings, including 11 between September and December. His absence rate was the third worst on the Hyattsville City Council.

Wingard explained the reason for his absences, saying that his workload has increased as the LADEE launch date gets closer. According to Wingard, he started out on the project working with just a neutral mass spectrometer payload aboard the satellite, but he now is in charge of all payloads aboard the craft.