Forums highlight important local issues

PERKINS TWP. — Two separate but related political forums aimed to achieve the same goals. Each session allowed candidates running for local offices an opportunity to shed light on their platforms while addressing issues mattering most to community members before voters, one month from now, make all-important choices. Those running to become a Sandusky city commissioner and a Perkins Township trustee participated in candidate forums Tuesday night at Work Space Sandusky. Hosted by the Greater Sandusky Partnership, organizers thanked "everyone who joined us and supported these discussions for the future of Sandusky and Perkins Township." Topics asked of candidates included those related to infrastructure improvements, economic development, affordable housing and more. Both forums helped kick off the voting season: Tuesday marked the first day of early voting and happened just a few weeks before Nov. 4, coinciding with Election Day. People can watch the forums in full by visiting the partnership's YouTube channel: youtube.com/@greatersandusky. Sandusky city commission All five candidates running for office — Patricia Ferguson, Gregg Peugeot, Tim Schwanger, Tom Tucker and Luvada Wilson — participated in the first hourlong forum. These five candidates, all newcomers, are running for three open seats. No incumbents are seeking re-election: Dick Brady and Dennis Murray Jr. can't run because of term limits, and Steve Poggiali won't attempt to win another four years in office. Come Nov. 4, the top three vote-getters each win four-year terms starting in January. There are four city commission members — Jeff Krabill, Richard Koonce, Kate Vargo and Dave Waddington — whose seats are not up for election this term. They will continue their duties on the board until their terms expire in 2027. During Tuesday's forum, among the questions asked receiving varying responses from all five candidates: "Describe your economic vision for Sandusky in 10 years. What's the first bold move you'd make as a commissioner to get there? And how will you hold yourself and the commission accountable, year by year, to make that vision real?" Here are their answers in the order of when each candidate spoke: • Tucker: I'm just going to answer that with my past history: The school districts I have been in — two of them were in financial crisis, and one went in financial crisis when the governor took back all of our money to rebuild the state fund — at that point, you have to be fiscally responsible. You need to have plans in place. You need to have a plan on building up economic development. And we have been very fortunate financially and with our economics in the past decade here. But some of us … we have lived through some tough times: We lived through 2008. We lived through 2001. Some of us even remember further back in the inflation years of the 1980s. You have to be aware of that and make plans for that because that could happen. Hopefully, it never does, but you need to have plans in place to take care of those times when they happen with some reserves. • Schwanger: I'll just use an example. If I were to vote tomorrow on the location of the Sandusky Recreation Center, it would have been a "No," and here's why: We are taking prime industrial property out of the hands of industry and putting it into the hands of government, who will not be paying property tax on that property. We have Mills School that is underutilized. We use it, but it's underutilized. We could have used it as a community rec center. We could have added tennis courts on the outside of it. And we could have just made improvements to make that our rec center at a much, much lower cost. • Wilson: My economic vision for 10 years, I would just love to see east side, west side, south side move progressively as well as downtown did. Downtown is beautiful, and the coastal land is going to be beautiful, but it can be an "or" kind of situation. It has to downtown "and" east side, downtown "and" west side, downtown "and" south side. As we continue to build our infrastructure, our roads, our streets, etc., we will have a better economic vision for the future. • Ferguson: My economic vision, and I'm hoping it doesn't take 10 years, is to have a disaster center and also to build some kind of structure. Downtown wanted the housing complex (but has) flooded, I think, three times, so something needs to be done to protect those apartments and housing. EMS is just in case you need it. A disaster center will be just in case you need it. We don't even know how to care — most of us don't know how to care for — the wounded or something major might happen. • Peugeot: We are in a better place now than we were 10 years ago in Sandusky. Ten years from now, I want to be in a better place than we are now. I want it to be better. I want it to be safer. I want it to be more affordable. I want more homeownership and more affordable rents. I want better neighborhoods. Economic development will be held accountable to create more jobs, better-paying jobs and more tourism tax revenue so that we can make all of those things possible. I'll be holding myself accountable in four years when I run again and in eight years when I run after that, and that's the way I'm going to hold myself accountable to everyone in this room and everyone listening. Perkins Township trustees Two of the three candidates running for office, Tim Coleman and Lisa Crescimano, participated in the second hourlong forum. Jim Lang, the race's third candidate, did not attend due to an illness. These three candidates, with Coleman and Lang as incumbents and Crescimano a newcomer, are running for two open seats. Come Nov. 4, the top two vote-getters win four-year terms starting in January. There's one more trustee, James Ommert, whose seat is not up for election this term. He will continue his duties on the board until his term expires in 2027. Like in Sandusky's contest, one of the questions asked receiving varying responses from both participating candidates involved long-term economic development: "Describe your economic vision for Perkins Township in 10 years: What's the first bold move you'd make as a trustee to get there? How will you hold yourself and the trustees accountable, year by year, to make that vision real?" Here are their answers in the order of when each candidate spoke: • Crescimano: Well, it would help if I knew what the vision was of the current people who are at the township. I have not seen their vision. I have not seen any of their plans. If I want to see it, I have to do a public records request, which I do. But, again, it has to do with communication. If you don't communicate your vision of what you plan on doing in the future with the residents and business owners of the township, we are just left high and dry and left to wonder what is going on. Route (Ohio) 4 … Tim said that we are planning all of these events to happen on Route (Ohio) 4. This is the first time I'm hearing about it, and I go to township meetings. Communication. • Coleman: There you go again. We have vision, values and goals set, and anybody that is either on our website, comes to our office — you are there often enough, I'll walk you around and show you where we have them — so it's not just because you don't know about it that it's not happening. I'll get that out. We have the Ohio Checkbook. That is something that was done a few years ago — thanks, Diane (Schaefer, former fiscal officer) for working on that — What that is: that shows all the dollars and cents that were taken in and spent and anybody can get online and look at that, so they can see where your money is going. That is something that's open and available. Something else (Crescimano said) prior to that: Grants for small businesses. Ohio Revised Code doesn't allow us to give grants to small businesses. So we can't do that. I like the idea, but we'll have to get that changed in Columbus if we are going to do something like that. Upcoming debates To learn more about each candidate and the issues important to them and the student body, watch the return of the Register's in-schools debate series: • Perkins High School will host the Perkins Township trustees debate on Tuesday, Oct. 14. • Sandusky Central Catholic School will host the Sandusky city commission debate on Wednesday, Oct. 22. In both contests, the public cannot attend. Viewers, however, can watch the debate in its entirety at sanduskyregister.com and the Register's YouTube channel shortly after the event concludes. Students at these schools will pose questions to the candidates. The in-schools debate series is sponsored by the Greater Sandusky Partnership.