Dixonville has two problems bigger than its million dollar deficit and they were both speaking at the chamber of commerce last night. Both Bill Smith and Frank Jones have been in the heat of their election campaign for mayor of Dixonville, but neither have pulled away in public polling. A reason for this is because both men seem as if they are questionable candidates at best.
Challenger Smith an entrepreneur of sorts whose latest business venture of glow in the dark hats. Smith has faced some criticism about his past, mainly his arrest for methamphetamine. On the other hand Mayor Jones has also faced heavy public criticism for being in office while Dixonville got in its deficit. The debate last night was integral for each candidates campaign if they were going to become the leader the city.
The room was packed past capacity as some of the 200 people in attendance even had to stand during the important debate. The heat from in the Chamber of Commerce just seemed to add to the pressure of the event.
Challenger Bill Smith addressed the audience first explaining his economic proposal of closing both the parks on Elm Street and Kennedy Avenue, as well as closing the city’s senior center.
Smith explained to the audience, “My economic plan does close down two city parks and our senior center, but the city is losing money. We have to be sensible about our budget. We simply can’t afford all of the services we are paying for during this crisis.”
Although it may be sensible, will the city want to close the park which holds many city events as well as other community building activities such as little league games, barbeques, and birthday parties? As for the senior center, it is another popular establishment that the elderly have attended for years, and is often revered as the activity they look most forward to.
Mayor Frank Jones approached the podium with a little more confidence than his opponent, knowing that he has won an election before, and he can win another. He came out on the attack, striking directly at his opponents proposed plan.
“He says two of our parks and our senior center have to be closed. Yes, painful cuts must be considered in the coming year. But to take out the bad economy on our vulnerable seniors and precious children is nothing short of cruel.”
The statement landed with some applause, but the mood of the room quickly changed when the audience learned that Jones had no plan of his own to fix the deficit but would be open to working out budget cuts at public forums. This was when an old narrative of Jones began to resurface, that our current mayor was unfit to lead the city and did not hold himself accountable for the mistakes he made in his first term.
Jones said, "To blame the city's economic crisis on me loses sight of the bigger picture. We are in a down economy and have been faced with unanticipated cutbacks in state and federal funding. No one could have seen this coming."
The debate did give the public a good look at the two candidates. They let the public into their policies which seemed lacking or nonexistent. With the Dixonville Daily showing a public polling of the two candidates at 46 percent each it is imperative that one candidate strengthens his campaign with the election coming up in the next five weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment