First Montgomery Mayoral Forum Held at Crump Center
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A mayoral forum was held Thursday night at the Crump center in Montgomery. It was the first time residents heard from all six candidates in one setting.
The mayoral election is right around the corner and candidates are doing everything they can to make sure the citizens of Montgomery know what they stand for. Artur Davis, Jon De’Voe, Ella Bell, Buena Browder, Dan Harris and Incumbent Todd Strange spoke candidly about problems the city is facing and how to fix them.
The six candidates vying for Montgomery’s top office fielded questions from residents at Thursday evening’s mayoral forum.
“I have watched this mayor for the last six years systematically close every community center,” said Harris.
“There are some crimes like marijuana that I think should be legalized in the city of Montgomery,” said De’Voe.
It was the first all six candidates met under one roof to debate and discuss issues pressing the city.
“Education is the key to helping us alleviate most of the problems,” Bell said about crime.
"We do need some type of transportation so I really want to look at DOT,” Browder said about moving the city forward.
The event drew a standing room only crowd. Concerned residents packed the Crump Center in Montgomery, wanting to hear what candidates had to say about crime, education, job creation and city development.
“I think there’s a lot of homeschooling that’s not getting done and not being checked on,” said Montgomery resident Roger Hunt. “I think that’s a very serious problem.”
“I think we need some more sidewalks so that we can walk a little bit more,” another voter said.
The forum was mostly conflict free but candidate Artur Davis and incumbent Todd Strange did take turns making attacks on one another.
“I didn’t want to get personal but he’s gotten personal,” Strange said. “How would he know? He hasn’t been there in 30 years. Just because he says it, doesn’t make it so.”
“You know what the opposite of leaving a city is? It’s sticking around so long that you think the good ole boy network and the old way of doing things is the only way,” Davis countered.
Other topics discussed included city ordinances, pay day loan stores, and the old Montgomery mall, known now as the One Center.
Montgomery’s mayoral election is set for August 25th.
