Candidates running for two local offices - Wayne City Council and Wayne Community Schools' Board of Education - took part in a Candidate Forum on Tuesday.
Hosted by Wayne America, Inc., the forum provided candidates for Wayne City Council Ward 4 Dwaine Spieker and Dallas Dorey and those for Wayne Community Schools Board of Education Lynn Junck, Jennifer Widner, Melissa Meyer, Jennifer Sievers, Jaime Manz and Brendon Pick the chance to provide personal information and discuss issues important to them.
Breland Ridenour served as moderator and asked questions during the two part event.
Both Spieker and Dorey have served on the Wayne City Council in the past. In fact, they both served in Ward 3 before resigning due to moving out of the ward.
When asked about priorities in the city, Dorey listed work on an electrical substation, dealing with city-owned properties and establishing a power purchase agreement.
Spieker said his priorities included continuing to expand all types of housing in the city and creating infrastructure for these homes.
Both shared similar views in a number of areas and talked about what growth meant to them.
When asked about the city's greatest accomplishments, Spieker said getting something done with the old lagoon and the expansion of housing in the city.
Dorey echoed those thoughts and added creating a new City Hall/Police station that is ADA compliant.
During final comments, both candidates said they had similar visions for the city moving forward and encouraged everyone to "go out and vote and make your voice heard."
Moving into the school board candidate portion of the evening, each of the six candidates was given the opportunity to talk about their backgrounds and reasons for running for the position.
Junck, who lives near Carroll, has been a member of the board for eight years and "has a good understanding of budgets"; Widner, has lived in Wayne nearly her whole life and has been involved with education for 30 years; Meyer, who lives southeast of Wayne, has two children in the school and noted that there are "lots of families who the board's decisions affect"; Sievers has been a resident of Wayne for more than 20 years and served on the Wayne City Council for eight years; Manz came to Wayne State College as a student and "never left" and is currently finishing her second term on the board; Pick, who lives southeast of Wayne, is a Wayne native and said he "cares a lot about the community and the school system."
Questions for the candidates included listing their priorities for the district, the issue of transparency between the board, administration and community; the best approach to retain teachers, how to be better with managing school finances and thoughts on adding additional gym space for the district.
During closing comments, each candidate stated they would like to be a part of the board to "do what is best for the students."