COURTLAND—Southampton County Supervisor Walter D. “Walt” Brown III is seeking his third, four-year term in the Newsom District.

A Republican and retired Army lieutenant colonel, Brown, 67, will run against Independent Glenn Updike, a 71-year-old farmer and former agent with Southeast Virginia District Agricultural Farm Management.

Brown’s primary issues are jobs, attracting high-tech industries, reforming personal property tax on farm equipment, creating more youth programs, attracting business to the Turner Tract Industrial Park, unfunded state mandates, high real estate taxes and using tourism as a tax resource.

Jobs are his number one priority, including getting businesses into the Turner Tract, a more than 400-acre industrial park at Rose Valley Road and General Thomas Highway.

Brown also would like to revisit the tax farmers pay on equipment for harvesting crops.

“I think taxes on farm equipment should be less than what it is,” he said. “If the crops are serving and feeding the world; we have soybeans, corn and peanuts that travel abroad.”

Brown’s also pleased with his push for manned garbage sites, which has saved the county about $3 million over the last 4½ years.

“I think it was a great thing done by the board,” he said.

A Southampton County native, Brown graduated from Hayden High School in Franklin. He received a bachelor’s degree in social science from University of the State of New York and master’s degree in logistics management from Florida Institute of Technology.

Brown was drafted into the Army during his senior year at Norfolk State University. He was commission a second lieutenant in 1973 and served 28 years in the military.

Chief for the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Brown belongs to the Retired Officers Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled Veteran Association, Lt. Governor’s Advisory Council, Men of Faith, Southampton County Historical Society, chairman for the 150th Civil War Committee, Kappa Alpha Psi, NAACP and Franklin Sportsman Association.

He is a father of four and a Baptist minister, serving as associate pastor at Diamond Grove Baptist Church.