March 25th, 2013

Voting in Carbondale

Early Voting will be possible at the Carbondale Civic Center on the following dates:

- Thursday, March 28th from 9am to 3pm

- Tuesday, April 2nd from 9am to 3pm

- Thursday, April 4th from 9am to 3pm

The General Election for three Carbondale City Council seats will take place on April 9th. Voting is ongoing from 7am to 7pm.

March 18th, 2013

From The Southern:

"

CARBONDALE — Candidates vying for one of three open seats on the Carbondale City Council shared their ideas with voters during a candidate’s forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Jackson County.

Blaine Tisdale said he wants to provide diversity to the council, and economic development for the city.

Brent Ritzel said he would focus on making Carbondale into a living destination.

“The key to doing this is implementing and applying the comprehensive plan… to achieve this greater vision,” said Ritzel.

Carolin Harvey said her top priorities would be a balanced budget, safe community and maintaining the city relationship with SIU.

Lee Fronabarger said his top priority is economic development.

“A growing community will create the necessary revenues to plan and complete special projects…,” he said.

Jessica Bradshaw said her focus would be on supporting youth and sustainable development, as well as revitalizing downtown.

“We already have a great plan, we just have to write our zoning codes to support it,” she said.

Navreet Kang said he would work to bring business to Carbondale by developing TIF Districts.

“When I came here in the 1980s, it was a hustling, bustling place,” Kang said.

Jerrold Hennrich said he would focus on enrollment at SIU and attracting business to Carbondale.

“If we can do that I think we will find a lot of our problems will resolve themselves,” he said.

Karim Abdullah would focus on community-police relations to reduce crime and resource development to retain home grown talent and stop the brain drain.

“Carbondale is a great place to live, but because of a lack of resources people like myself had to leave and go develop our talents in other areas,” he said.

Pepper Holder said there needs to be an attitude in the community that people are welcome here. Holder said he is in favor of conducting a needs assessment to evaluate housing to improve conditions.

“People are the only industry that we have,” he said.

Tony Holsey said the city should utilize its industrial park.

“I believe that’s something we’ve strayed away from over the years and we need to utilize our industrial park to bring industry here.

Luke Adams Jr. and William Graham are on the ballot but did not participate in the forum."

December 5th, 2012

From The Southern:

"Four candidates for Carbondale City Council were assigned slots Tuesday on the Feb. 26 primary ballot.

November 28th, 2012

From WSIL-TV:

"CARBONDALE -- It's a crowded field for three open city council seats in Carbondale. 14 people are in the running. That means voters will have a lot of candidates to learn about before making their choice. City officials hope the large number doesn't discourage people from doing their research and voting.

"14 makes a challenge, I think," says Carbondale resident Brenda Smith.

"I think it shows we have a lot of interest in a group that sets public policy for the city," said Carbondale's City Manager Kevin Baity.

Baity says having 14 candidates automatically triggers a primary election. The top six candidates will then move on to the consolidated election in April.

"14 is too many, so six is going to be good, but how we get to the six, that's going to be up to the public I guess," says Zipper Brandhorst, another Carbondale resident.

Smith says, "It's hard to pay attention to what everybody thinks, and when we have less people, we have less opinions, but then where there's more people, there's more opinions."

Lee Fronabarger is a current council member in the list of candidates, but he was appointed and has not yet run for election.

Baity says there will be plenty of opportunities for the public to meet the people running for city council. Smith says she wants to know how the candidates plan to retain SIU students and grow the city's economy.

"How do you get people to come to Carbondale, what is it that students are looking for? I've been a resident of Carbondale for a long time, you know, and I've seen students not come back to Carbondale. So why? Why are they going other places?"

The primary election will be February 26th, and Jackson County Clerk Larry Reinhardt says it will cost about $20-25,000. The consolidated election is on April 9th. "