Economic Development & Growth, Basic & Emergency Services, and Kids’ Activities are the consensus of top priority for all Fairfield City Council Candidates in this year’s election.
With Election Day set for this Saturday, May 6th, “The Times” hosted a candidate forum on Thursday evening, April 27th, to give the public a chance to meet the contenders in this race.
Up for re-election are David Steward, Landis Bayless, and Kenny Hughes.
Running against Steward are Kevin Childers and Keith Daniels. Vying for Bayless’s position is Jason Bosley; and William (Bill) Brown is running for Kenny Hughes’s spot.
All were in attendance with the exception of Kenny Hughes, who was unable to attend because his oldest daughter was receiving an award from her university.
The forum began with each candidate introducing themselves, followed by a series of questions that each had a chance to weigh in on.
The first question posed was “If elected, what will be your priorities; and why do you believe them to be important?”
“I believe there is a difference between needs and wants,” explains Bill Brown. “I believe we need to focus on the City’s needs first and foremost. Things like safe water, proper sewage drainage, and emergency services.”
He also says, “I would like to see an emergency service center where all of our police, fire department, and EMS are housed together where they can work together to provide more cohesive service.”
Jason Bosley states, “We need to be spending money correctly. There needs to be plans laid out and not just knee-jerk reactions. I keep seeing industry moving out, and none moving in. We’ve got to cut spending, raise taxes, or start bringing in businesses for revenue.”
“I want to do something great for our community,” says Keith Daniels. “I have two kids and two more on the way. I plan to step up for these kids. Kids’ activities and job growth are what is most important. We’ve got to give the kids growing up here a reason to want to stay. If there are no jobs, there is no reason for them to stay.”
Kevin Childers explains, “I believe its three fold. 1) basic services – are we doing things right? 2) economic development and growth; and 3) our kids. We need to make sure the city residents are safe, need to grow the businesses and revenue, and provide activities and future jobs for our kids.”
“My main priority is our emergency services. We have a good team now, but we are short staffed in our police department,” says Landis Bayless. “We can’t do anything to help our town without money; and we’ve got to get some type of revenue coming in. Per our recent audit, we are not overspending our budget; we simply have no incoming revenue. We have got to start developing along the interstate. Without economic growth, we have nothing to bring people to our town. We need to work harder on getting grant monies and private dollars. It takes work. We can’t just do things because we want it. There is a process.”
“I could say ‘Ditto’ to everything these men have all said so far,” explains David Steward. “I believe they all echo the concerns of most of the citizens of this time. I believe kids are important and I can say now that, whether or not I’m elected, I’m working on trying to bring a multi-million dollar sports complex to the interstate area that will bring in about 50 new jobs.”
He goes on to say, “I’m a fourth generation resident here; am married; have two kids; and four grand-kids. I want to give them a reason to want to stay.”
Another question posed to the panel came from Pct. 3 Commissioner Mike Daniels who states, “I’ve had several residents from my precinct concerned about forced annexation and what each of your stance is regarding that.”
The answer from across the board was a resounding NO! Each candidate expressed that while they are in favor of annexation and understand and see the necessity of it, they are all against forced annexation.
“I think people are scared that taxes will go up and that the City will be making money off of them,” explains Steward. “But with the services they will receive by being annexed into the City limits, that will greatly outweigh what they are paying in taxes, therefore there is not a monetary profit to the City. What we do gain is a greater population which will allow us to bring in more businesses, especially along the interstate, which is key.”
He continues saying, “I also believe that those who are not inside the City limits and are receiving City services, need to be annexed; they need to be inside the City to receive those services.”
“Annexation is not a form of revenue,” says Bayless. “We need annexation for growth of population and businesses.
Mayor Roy Hill spoke up at this point saying, “I’ve always been against forced annexation, but with annexation we can get our population to that magic number of 5,000 that will help bring in bigger businesses.”
“People have to decide if they want to see this town grow or die,” he continues, “Because it’s going to die without the growth of population and businesses.”
Brown states, “I’m all for annexation, just not forced, to help grow the town and increase the population. If you look at Fairfield, there are more homes, one of the highest numbers of students in our schools, but our population is down. Why? Because so many live outside of the City limits.”
“Forced annexation? No,” explains Childers. “I think we need to hear them out. What are their concerns and how can we work together. That’s what’s important, working together. We all live, go to school, and go to church together; so it’s vital that we come together to work things out.”
Also during this forum, Teague City Aldermen were invited to participate. Marilyn Michaud, the only one to attend, explains that in her opinion, the top priority for the City of Teague is to replace all of the non-working fire hydrants.
“If someone’s house caught fire and the hydrant is not working, the City would be held liable and there probably wouldn’t be a City of Teague anymore.”
She continued saying that, “Teague is slowly growing and the EDC is steadily working on bringing in new businesses.”
It’s clear that these candidates seem to have the City’s best interest at heart. Be sure to get to the polls and place your vote this Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the respective City Hall.
