Coney challenges for District 2 seat

Posted

Janice Reed Coney has been knocking on doors and asking questions.

Coney is a 53-year-old Manning native seeking to represent District 2 on City Council and will face off against Councilwoman Diane Georgia in the April 8 election.

"It's not about me anymore," said Coney, a Manning High School Class of 1978 honor graduate. "It's time to give back. That's where I'm at in life right now."

To understand what's on the minds of her fellow District 2 citizens, Coney has been knocking on doors and meeting people in hopes of finding out what matters to them.

"I don't know any other way. Now, I've got a Facebook page, but I'm old school," she said, laughing.

She wants to bring back a sense of neighborhood camaraderie where people that live on the same street aren't strangers; where kids play together outside instead of sitting inside glued to the couch playing videogames. Coney happily talks about plans for a "District 2 Day" that serves not only as a block party where neighbors get together and enjoy a cookout, but also take part in voter registration drives and other forward thinking community initiatives. And she'd like to see more Manning residents attending council meetings to be more informed and involved in how their city is progressing.

"We've got to do better, too," she said.

Coney spent most of her adult life in our nation's capital working for the U.S. Department of Commerce as she's viewed higher education as the stepping-stone to success. After high school, she studied secretarial science at the now defunct Columbia Commercial College in our state's capital. Her parents didn't have much money -- she was the seventh of nine children -- and she wanted to learn professional skills. A work-study program landed her a government job and taught her the value of job security while also fueling her desire to earn more degrees.

She developed an interest in computer science and obtained an associate's degree in computer information systems from Northern Virginia Community College, which led to bachelor and master's degrees from Strayer University in that same field.

In 1993 she applied and was accepted into a highly competitive yearlong program under the auspice of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management known as the Women's Leadership Program. Coney's career at the commerce department saw her take part in helping transition in a new era of information technology and was very rewarding, but some time in the late 90s she started feeling homesick and dreaded returning to Washington, D.C. after seeing family over Christmas break.

Finally in 2002 Coney decided to sell her home and return to Clarendon County to be closer to her family and help take care of her mother Edith, who is now 90 years old and happens to be her next-door neighbor.

"The timing was just right," she said. "I could've gone anywhere in the world but I chose to come back home."

Coney worked with the Santee Lynches Regional Council of Governments from 2002 to January of this year, serving as the ombudsman in the long term care area. She advocated for long-term care residents, a position she said was "one of the most fulfilling positions I've had."

"You work for the state's most vulnerable population," she said. "We were their eyes and ears."

Coney also recently earned her master's degree in religion/Biblical studies, as she feels she has the call to teach.

"I have a teaching spirit. That's who I am. It's not something I do -- it's who I am," she said.

In addition to having worked an adjunct instructor for Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter and for Florence Darlington Technical College, Coney is also a licensed foster parent.

And now she wants to enter politics with the mindset of listening to people and helping solve problems.

"I don't make promises I can't keep," she said. "I promise to listen to what goes on and take your concerns to the council table. And I promise to follow up with you, whether good, bad, yes, no, maybe, or whatever comes out."

Coney also wants people in District 2 to know she will be available.

"That's what any elected official should do," she said.

Added streetlights and sidewalk improvements or upgrades are on her mind, she said, along with an increased law enforcement presence. Coney is hosting a meet and greet from 2 to 5 p.m. today at the Brotherly Love Masonic Lodge at 531 W. Huggins St.