Dr. Dan Eichenbaum has learned to embrace the role local government plays in people’s lives.
“The more experience I have, the more I realize that local government is where most of the power is,” he said. “That’s where you have the biggest chance to protect people from tyranny, and that’s really what it’s all about.”
Eichenbaum is running for re-election as the District 4 representative on the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. The Republican candidate has served on the board for the last eight years and also was appointed chairman. While that role has placed him at the center of a variety of heated issues in the county in recent years, Eichenbaum said he is proud of the work done during his terms.
“Obviously, every government entity runs into crises from time to time,” he said. “But over the course of eight years, we have done an awful lot to put the county on sound financial footing, and have things progress in a way in which we are providing the services that people actually need on a better and better basis.”
Eichenbaum believes the adoption of a pay plan was one of the most significant acts during his tenure as commissioner. He said the pay plan has helped Cherokee County hire and retain employees in key sectors, such as the sheriff’s office and Emergency Management Services.
“People might say, ‘There’s no plan,’ ” he said. “There is a plan. The plan is to advance the services that we all need, and need to survive.”
As chairman of the board, Eichenbaum often has faced the brunt of public anger over noise from unenclosed crypto mines in Cherokee County. He said he’s done his best to resolve the issue through mediation with parent company Ankr/Exponential Digital.
“(Residents) have a valid issue,” he said. “The problem is they were weaponized from the outset, and they were weaponized primarily against me for political reasons. I don’t care about that; it did not prevent me from trying to solve these issues with the CEO of Ankr.”
Finances are another major concern, as the county has already paid out millions of dollars stemming from lawsuits against the Department of Social Services, and potentially is on the hook for tens of millions of dollars more. The lawsuits stem from the use of custody and visitation agreements.
Eichenbaum pointed out that the first of those was written five years before he was elected commissioner. He blames the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services for failing to properly assess Cherokee County DSS over the years.
“They’re the guilty party, but they don’t want to be the guilty party, so they come down and make us the guilty party because they didn’t do their job,” he said.
When it comes to local education, Eichenbaum voted in favor of consolidating the county’s three high schools. He said it was the only choice that made sense based on the resources students need today, the poor condition of the county’s current facilities, limited funding and a number of other factors.
“You have to take the emotion out of it,” he said.
Private property rights are an important focus for Eichenbaum. He has consistently resisted measures that he felt could open the door to zoning within Cherokee County.
“What zoning does is it gives other people the right to tell you what you can and cannot do on your property,” Eichenbaum said. “That is totally unacceptable to me. Here we have freedom.”
It’s ultimately freedom – and the protection of it – that is driving Eichenbaum to seek another term.
“I’m running again because I want to protect my freedom,” he said. “And the only way I can protect my freedom is if I protect everybody’s freedom.”