Minonk's mayoral and aldermanic candidates met at City Hall Monday night to answer questions and explain their platform to the public.  The "Meet the Candidates Night" was organized by Julia Voss of the Woodford Journal and moderated by Jay Jochums, Sherry Stalter, and Jan Heck.  Each candidate was given 2 minutes for an opening comment and 1 minute for a closing comment.  In between, each candidate was asked to respond to 5 questions prepared by the staff of the Woodford Journal.

The candidates in attendance were mayoral candidates Mark Spencer and Bill Koos, aldermanic candidates Ron Redenius and Brian Peterson in Ward 2 , Kerri Carls in Ward 3, and Sean Cunningham in Ward 1.  Candidate Larry Fortner in Ward 1 was not in attendance.

Below are sumarized responses to each question by each candidate.

Opening comments by the candidates:

Brian Petersen:  "Minonk deserves better service.  I will listen to the people.  People's opinions were not taken into consideration on the one-way street decision in front of the grade school.  Public safety is my main issue.  The city should pursue business opportunities, not wait for businesses to come to them".

Sean Cunningham:  " I bring a degree of business experience to the city council.  Economic development is the number one priority.  What can we do to enhance business opportunities for Minonk."

Kerry Carls: " My main priority are safety issues and creating opportunities for children."

Bill Koos:  "The I-39 raceway development is very positive.  I want the zoning board to get involved in development decisions.  We have to strike a balance between development downtown and I-39.  I will not discharge any public employee as long as they stick to their job description.  Contrary to public rumors, I voted on option 5 for keeping the ambulance squad in Minonk.  There never was an option to move the ambulance squad out of Minonk."

Mark Spencer: "I developed teamwork to help make things happen in Minonk.  We have to determine how to get people to work together to make Minonk grow."

Ron Redenius:  "It takes about a year to become acquainted with how things work.  I was against the one-way street in front of the grade school because of the traffic it created in the alley behind my residence."

1.  If elected, what is you number one goal during your term.

Ron Redenius:  "To bring new industry into Minonk and to fill up the empty buildings in downtown Minonk."

Brian Petersen:  "Economic development.  We must promote MInonk and balance the new with the older businesses."

Kerri Carls:  "Promote economic development.  I have a lot of learning to do and will be listening to the people in my ward."

Mark Spencer:  "Teamwork.  It takes teamwork to bring in the Dollar General Store, to plan the sesquicentennial, to build the Westside Park pavilion and to build the new water tower."

Sean Cunningham:  "Wants to help existing businesses downtown and at I-39."

Bill Koos:  "Consensus building.  It takes the consensus of a wide range of people and taxing bodies to balance the growth of downtown with the raceway development.  I favor a stronger zoning board to help control growth in order to preserve Minonk's character.  The zoning board must take the lead in guiding growth in Minonk."

2.  Explain how the city should handle water and sewer issues with expansions such as the raceway.

Brian Petersen:  "I don't know if the water and sewer is adequate for the racetrack."

Sean Cunningham:  "We need to address the end of line for the Locust Street sewer to facilitate drainage.  We can handle the raceway's needs but need to expand it for other new businesses that will locate in Section Six."

Mark Spencer:  "Money generated by new businesses will provide the revenue needed to expand the water and sewer lines.  We need to expand the storm sewer system so as to divert rain water from the sewage treatment plant.

Bill Koos:  ""Modernization of the infrastructure through the budget process.  We have to look 3-5 years down the road.  The budget process allows us to plan for the future.  We have to create capital reserves for the future development of infrastructures.  We can't wait until development is needed."

Ron Redenius:  "We will probably have to be like El Paso and build another water tower on city property near the I-39 development."

3.  Newly developed areas can generate higher property values that can help Fieldcrest School District's financial problems.  However, if the expansion occurs within a TIF district, the school see no property tax benefit.  How can the schools needs and the city's needs be reconciled.

Sean Cunningham:  "We need to keep TIF expansion as narrow as possible.  The raceway TIF will give 35% of its surplus back to the taxing bodies.  Schools will get an additional $41,000 a year in property tax.  There is already surplus money in the TIF district 2 for the schools if they wish to apply for it."

Ron Redenius:  "The schools have not utilized the TIF money they are eligible for.  However, the money can only be used for capital improvements and not for education."

Mark Spencer:  "Properly used, TIF districts can make a difference between getting a development or losing it.  This new raceway TIF will not adversely affect taxing bodies and is a good TIF.  However, TIF's used wrongly can become a monster."

Brian Petersen:  "The TIF district has allowed the racetrack development to happen.  Therefore, let's go out and find new businesses to put into the non TIF area so as to generate more tax revenue."

Bill Koos:  "Consensus - School districts have to be involved in the TIF process.  The schools have to tell us if the TIF is good for them.  We need a consensus between all taxing bodies."

4.  Explain how the city should handle emergency service issues with expansions such as the raceway.

Brian Petersen:  "10-30,000 people will be coming to the racetrack on weekends.  It is a huge concern for security.  Do we have enough resources to handle it?"

Bill Koos:  "Accountability is the key.  This is the process by which we assign responsibility for security at each level and hold each level responsible."

Ron Redenius:  "The ambulance squad has done a great job.  They can take care of the raceway accidents.  The firemen have always done a great job.  We can meet the needs of the raceway."

Sean Cunningham:  "Based on information from the Cordova Raceway, our city should be able to handle the security needs."

Mark Spencer:  "In our meetings with the developer of the raceway, we emphasized the need for the developer to work with the city on its emergency needs."

5.  What is your position regarding developing Minonk, for example in the Carolyn Development or the old bakery building in the 400 block of Oak Street?

Bill Koos:  "The city is very fortunate to have a manufacturing based economy in which employees live and work in the city.  Manufacturing may be dying elsewhere but it is thriving here in Minonk.  We need to promote that package and go to Cat and Deere and show them the opportunities for manufacturing in Minonk."

Ron Redenius:  "We have been trying to get the bakery building occuppied for a long time and need to find people who want to use it.  The Carolyn Development has 7acres left for development.  Maybe another manfacturing building could be located there."

Mark Spencer:  "We haven't sat back and waited as some of you have implied.  We have to make contacts on a private basis.  Contacts are made at least on a weekly basis.  Most don't pan out but we are trying to be proactive.  Just because you don't hear of anything happening doesn't mean that we aren't trying.  We can't tell the public everything that is going on because of the developer's need for privacy.  The city got a grant for the MinonkTalk website to help promote the city."

Sean Cunningham:  "We need to focus on retail and bring in stores to the empty buildings in downtown.  Retail sales will generate revenue for the city."

Brian Petersen:  "We need to go out and look at successful racetracks and determine what associated businesses are around the racetrack and then try to bring similar businesses to the raceway development in Minonk.  The expansion of business in the raceway development will eventually overflow into the downtown area."

The following comments are closing statements by each of the candidates.

Ron Redenius:  "We need to bring more businesses to town and we also need to clean up the city."

Mark Spencer:  "It is most important to work together.  This approach has brought growth to the downtown area with the new Dollar General Store, the exercise facility, and the Ruestman-Harris Funeral Home.  Minonk is not dying, it is growing."

Bill Koos:  "I know how to build a consensus through teamwork.  I have a vision of how to bring growth to Minonk."

Kerri Carls:  "It is important that everyone works together to help Minonk grow."

Sean Cunningham: "It is important that we work together."

Brian Petersen:  "I will listen to my constituents and will vote based on what's good for the majority, not what is good for the few."