City Council candidates gear up for election

William Ford
Daily Egyptian

With the City Council election less than a week away, the six candidates took one of their final chances to interact with the public in an open forum Wednesday night at the Carbondale Civic Center. The League of Women Voters of Jackson County sponsored the event, which gave each of the candidates a chance to introduce themselves and talk about their campaign before fielding questions from the audience. Candidate was given 90 seconds to answer each question.

During the City Council meeting Tuesday night, the council approved an ordinance prohibiting the use of the motorized scooters on streets or sidewalks in the city. One of the questions raised during the forum was whether the candidates agreed with the decision. None of the candidates supported the idea of allowing the scooters because of a risk to pedestrians. Incumbent Corene McDaniel said the scooters are illegal for sidewalk use according to state law, and she thought they are capable of speeds too fast for sidewalks.

"Those things can go up to 30 miles an hour," McDaniel said. "If it's against the law, why should we want them here in Carbondale?" While candidate Donald Barrett agreed with McDaniel that the scooters have no place on the sidewalk, he made the argument that it should be legal to ride a bicycle on sidewalks. "I would much rather see the bicycles on the sidewalks away from the cars," Barrett said. As has been the trend whenever the candidates gather, they were again asked whether they supported the building a community pool. While none of the candidates raised any opposition to the issue, they had different ideas on how to approach the idea.

Candidate Angie Kaye said she thought the city should work together with the Carbondale Park District and local schools so the pool could be not only a recreational area but also an educational tool. "I think if the city really wants this, we should pursue it," Kaye said. "I would really like to see this be two-fold: for education and for fun." Incumbent Chris Wissmann said he would not oppose the pool, but he thinks there needs to be more research done to find out how economically feasible it would be. The last feasibility study concerning a community pool was done in 1998, and Wissmann called for the need of an updated study.

"I don't think you can whole-heartedly support something when we have no proposal," Wissmann said. "We still need to answer some questions." Another question posed was whether the candidates supported a user fee for landlords that would pay for housing inspections. The idea behind the inspections is to encourage landlords to keep their property up to code. Candidate Rhett Barke said the fee was not a bad idea, but he thought the fee may cause landlords to raise rent.

"I can't say I'm against the fee," Barke said. "I'm just worried about what that will do to the cost of rental." Candidate Joel Fritzler said he thought rather than charge the landlords a fee for the inspections, a better idea would be to strictly enforce fines for properties that are not up to city standards.

"What I would like to see is more of a fining schedule," Fritzler said. "After a while, if the people get tired of paying fees, then they'll clean up their property." The general election will take place April 5 where three of the six candidates will be chosen to join the council.