Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Community service including serving on a local governing board runs deep in the family of one of the four candidates for the New London town council.

Richard Kimmer, the grandson of a former council member, Katherine Rogers, is running in the November election against incumbents Johnny Chestnut, Bill Peak and Daniel Phillips.

Kimmer was born and raised in New London and recently moved back to his hometown after having lived for several years in Albemarle.

“(New London) is my community. These are the people I love, the people I grew up with. I love my small-town community,” Kimmer said.

Inspired to run by his grandmother, who served in the 1980s, Kimmer said he “always wanted to represent her well one day as a leader in our community.”

Kimmer said he is “community-driven” including his service with New London Volunteer Fire Department, adding “that’s what would make me a good partner to be on the town council.”

Volunteering for a fire department brings community members together for any call, like fire, medical and rescue, but also allow citizens to live their own lives with their families, he said.

The town council has been moving in the right direction, he said, helping to bring the community together on projects including connecting New London to the thread trail in Richfield, and opening a new recreational park across from the Tarheel ChalleNGe Academy in town at the former elementary school.

Above everything else, Kimmer said, he is a very community-oriented person about his hometown.