Melinda Bales, chairwoman of Huntersville’s greenway commission, announced last week she plans to run for Huntersville commissioner this fall.

Bales also serves as president of the Torrence Creek Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association. She made her announcement at the June 16 meeting of the North Mecklenburg Republican Women and said she will focus on three key issues: “essential town services,” “prioritized budget” and schools.

Bales recently toured the current police headquarters, “and I am appalled that the station has been neglected for as long as it has,” she wrote in an email to the Herald Weekly.

Though she knows Huntersville commissioners do not control the schools, “we do need leaders willing to make Huntersville schools a priority and advocate for our schools and our families by working with (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools) and the (Board of County Commissioners) to ensure that our families’ needs are being met.”

Bales and her husband, John, have been married 19 years and have two sons, Joshua, who’s turning 11 in July, and Jonathan, 9. Before moving to North Carolina, in 2000, she worked as quality manager for MCI in Newport News, Va. She has been a stay-at-home mom and volunteer in Huntersville, including Lay Women’s Ministry director at Christ Community Church for six years.