T-R PHOTOS BY JOE FISHER — Left: Incumbent mayoral candidate Joel Greer makes his opening statement during the City Council and Mayoral Forum at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Thursday. Right: Mayoral candidate Serina Stabenow delivers her closing statement at the end of the City Council and Mayoral Forum held at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Thursday.

Before four council seats and the position of mayor are decided in the election next month, six council candidates and two mayoral candidates weighed in on issues the city faces during a forum at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum Thursday night.

The Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce and the Times-Republican hosted the event, which was moderated by Chamber of Commerce President John Hall and Times-Republican Managing Editor Robert Maharry. They posed prepared questions as well as several that the members of the audience submitted via text message.

Current councilman Mike Ladehoff, representing the First Ward, and Third Ward candidate Dex Walker are running unopposed, and Mark Eaton, Jeff Schneider, Barry Kell and Dean Stucky are vying for two at-large seats. Incumbent Mayor Joel Greer is seeking re-election against challenger Serina Stabenow.

The candidates were largely in agreement in their approval of the Downtown Master Plan, but some differed on the implementation of quiet zones for passing train traffic.

“I think the study said there’s up to 900 horns a day in Marshalltown,” Kell said. “I think we would all appreciate that number being much lower.”

At-large city council candidate Mark Eaton makes his opening remarks at Thursday evening’s Forum.

Ladehoff said he is still on the fence about quiet zones and would like to look at the issue more closely. It has not been discussed at council meetings since he rejoined after a special election earlier this year.

While the entire country is facing shortages, the candidates were asked how Marshalltown could strengthen its workforce and employment opportunities.

“We need to bring more employers to town, quality jobs. Work on quality of life,” Schneider said. “In my personal life, I’m closely involved with Trails Inc. That brings quality of life. We also need to do things that make people want to live here. If they come here, employers come here. It goes both ways.”

Walker said the shortage is something that concerns him greatly because of his background as a nurse.

“There are some pressures on our healthcare system that make shortages of healthcare professionals a very scary thing,” he said. “I believe Marshalltown does have some things in place that help with this. We have programs going on in our high school where students become CNAs before they even graduate. I was one of the people who did that.”

Barry Kell, a candidate for an at-large city council seat, introduces himself to the public at the Forum.

A question about balancing fiscal responsibility with the desire to maintain a growth mindset garnered a wide variety of ideas from the candidates. The council recently raised its self-imposed borrowing limit, which has led to discussions on city debt.

“From a business standpoint, if I need to borrow, maybe I need to spend less,” Stucky said. “One of my big concerns with the city is whether or not we’re prioritizing our spending the way we need to for growth and for infrastructure and for what we need done in the near future, not the far future.”

Greer noted the city’s bond rating and tax levy have remained consistent for many years.

“We have to match the pace of the community and community growth at the same time we are rebuilding and repairing after the tornado and derecho,” he said. “We’ve been able to do that. We just have to keep on going.”

Stabenow countered that she believed wasteful spending needed to stop.

Incumbent first ward council member Mike Ladehoff is running for re-election unopposed in November.

Eaton broke down one of the bonds in more detail and expressed concern about what it would mean for Marshalltown in the future.

“Debt can be a useful tool in the short term. We have some problems brewing in our debt,” he said. “We have a backend loaded bond that the council passed two years ago — $12.9 million, $6 million in interest. That’s going to explode on us. We’re going to pass this debt onto our children. I think we need to be more responsible.”

Hall received several text questions regarding diversity in the community. He asked candidates how they would make the non-white and non-Christian residents of Marshalltown, who comprise approximately 40 percent of the population, feel welcome after the Times-Republican reported on Stabenow’s comments related to immigrants and religious beliefs.

Schneider responded that Marshalltown is a melting pot, and its increased diversity has made the community stronger.

“I’m a Christian, but part of that is accepting people for who they are as well,” he said. “Everybody needs to make it a mission in their personal lives to be tolerant.”

Jeff Schneider makes his case for an at-large city council seat during the City Council and Mayoral Forum.

Ladehoff agreed with Schnieder that diversity is a strength of Marshalltown.

Stabenow offered her own thoughts on the question.

“Illegal immigrants are afraid to report crime which in turn makes it hard to keep the community safe,” she said. “As a community, we need to figure out how to help these people and not have them in hiding. Everyone wants to have a safe place to live. Immigration leads to behavior problems in school which leads to open enrollment. When we have a bad school reputation, people don’t want to move here.”

Eaton opined that inclusion goes both ways.

“When we’re talking about inclusion and diversity, we also need to think about what the T-R did when they tried to smear that mayoral candidate for what she said,” Eaton said. “No one reached out to her to talk about the issue and see if there was more to the story.”

Dean Stucky discusses his ideas for Marshalltown if he were to win an at-large seat on the city council.

Kell countered Eaton’s point with his own recollection of the situation.

“I just want to quickly address one of those comments about the T-R. We all had the fortune of being copied in that reply; I can confidently say that’s what was stated,” Kell responded. “We need to celebrate diversity. Marshalltown looks like the rest of the U.S. That is a great thing.”

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Contact Joe Fisher at news@timesrepublican.com.

Dex Walker is running unopposed to represent the third ward on the city council.