Meet candidates night sparsely attended by residents
By COLLIN MCRANN
Sun Advocate reporter
On Monday Oct. 26 a meet the candidates forum was held at the Rio theater in Helper. Although time was limited, many new candidates were introduced along with the familiar faces. In total, cities with open positions who participated included Price city, Wellington and Helper with the addition of the Price River Water Improvement District (PRWID).
For Price, Jeanne McEvoy and Mayor Joe Piccolo were present and although they are both running unopposed, they both had some things to say.
"Fortunately in Price we are a little out of the arena of boom and bust, but we need to continue to offer good stimulus ideas and other technical educational opportunities," said Ms. McEvoy.
Mayor Piccolo presented his ideas on the governments role in stimulating the economy as well as his focus on completing projects that have already begun.
"Price city has a budget of about $22 million, but can only flexibly spend a small small amount of it. It's very critical that we are very focused on completing our projects," he said.
After Price the two Wellington city candidates included Amber Adair and Ed Chavez. The two were questioned about what they intend to do about the Wellington city budget short fall due to a new law that prohibits the city from charging sales taxes on mining equipment. Ms. Adair indicated that she wants to help the city move forward and find ways to save money while Mr. Chavez indicated that he wants to go after a remedy from the state.
Budgets were the primary concern for every elected board as they are all tighter than in the past, but also Community Impact Board (CIB) grants were a hot topic. During the Helper forum which had by far the most people running, many of the concerns were the same.
When asked about the city's budget for the next six months and five years, most of the answers revolved around keeping things in check and stable. However current Councilman Dean Armstrong who is running for mayor indicated that he thinks the city's direction takes at least five years for new to take shape.
Overall the event had around 20 to 30 people in attendance and ended up being an informational experience for the public, as well as the other candidates that attended.
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