Three of the four candidates for Nashville Town Council participated in a public forum on Oct. 24 organized by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters Brown County.

Only two candidates were able to answer questions from the audience: Dist. 3 candidates Jane Gore and Mike “Possum” Roberts.

Due to the League’s “empty chair” policy, Dist. 2 candidate Alisha Gredy was not permitted to participate in the Q-and-A portion because her opponent, Raymond Mogdlin, did not attend the forum. However, Gredy was able to give a statement about her candidacy.

League President Shari Frank said that Mogdlin was unable to attend because he had to substitute-teach a class. He did not send a proxy to give a statement for him.

Gredy, town council incumbent, told the approximately 20 voters in the room that she grew up in Nashville and is now raising two daughters here and managing her family’s nearly 50-year-old business here. She believes the council is working well together and has a good consultant to help them keep going in the right direction. She mentioned that the town is working on a strategic plan for water and sewer service. She also identified herself as a “strong advocate to strengthen our town police department.”

The following are some of the questions asked of Gore and Roberts at the forum by moderator Heather Nicholson.

What’s your background?

Roberts said he’s “what you would call a ‘townie,’ having spent most of his life here. He highlighted his background in sports, as a member of the ’72 basketball team that beat Columbus at sectional, as a coach of Little League baseball, softball and basketball, and as former director of Brown County Parks and Recreation. “I’m a firm believer that sports is a microcosm of life,” he said. “You learn many values through sports … hard work, dedication, perseverance, honor, integrity and teamwork, just to name a few.” When he took the job as parks and rec director, the job paid $13,500 a year, but he took it anyway and worked a second job to make ends meet. He’s proud of the growth of the sports programs during his time at parks and rec. He also worked for the town’s water/wastewater operations for seven years. He’s currently working part-time for Cordry-Sweetwater as a water operator.

Gore is a nine-year veteran of the town council and currently its president. She moved to Nashville in 1976 and raised her family here. She also has served on the Nashville Redevelopment Commission and the Brown County Area Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals. She said the town council works well together, even though all the members don’t always agree, which is probably a good thing because it helps them hash through all the sides of an issue and come up with what is best for Nashville.

Several questions here have to deal with the water department, rate hike concerns and the condition of the lines. Speak about that topic.

Gore said that just that week, the council had approved a “major settlement” with Brown County Water Utility that will ensure, unless something happens with BCWU’s rates, that the town’s water rates will stay the same. She said the town had entertained the thought of selling the water utility, but won’t be doing so right now. As far as the water lines, it’s “just a part of life” that they’re aging and they’re going to pose some problems, she said. The sewer system is stable, she said.

Roberts said that unless things have changed since he left the town water department, part of the problems customers are seeing with the water lines are that they’re under high pressure, which can cause breaks. “I think we really need to get that straightened out,” he said. He said he didn’t know a lot about the rates because he’s not on the council, but “I’d want to keep those rates down, and I think there’s things we can do to make sure those rates are cut down to our budget,” he said. He also said he thinks “we need to watch our water department a little more closely” in terms of spending. He didn’t see any problems with the wastewater system.

Are there plans in place for how to pay for and maintain our aging underground water lines?

Gore said grants are “probably the way we’re going to have to handle it.”

Roberts agreed.

What’s the town council’s role in maintaining the historic integrity of the town?

Gore said that one of the things the council did just that week was to pass an update of the town’s “demolition delay” ordinance — which is not the historic preservation ordinance town groups had been working on for “at least the entire year.” The demolition delay ordinance protects buildings that are 50 and older from being demolished without a six-month review first by the town council. That process also would allow the public to be involved, she said. All potential buyers at the Andy Rogers estate auction were to be notified of the new ordinance, as all Rogers’ buildings were covered by it, she said.

Roberts said he’d been to the last two council meetings and had read minutes online, so he’s catching up on some of those issues, but from what he knows, “I think they’re doing a great job with the way they’re going about doing it,” about the council and its historic preservation stance.

How do property rights play into town codes, such as structures, upkeep of lawns, signage and things like that?

Roberts said that as long as what someone wants to build is within town ordinances and it matches the look of Nashville, it should be OK. “I think it has to have that look, just to keep us where we’ve been,” he said.

Gore said that “property rights, first of all, are most important,” and one of the reasons that the historic preservation ordinance had some hurdles to getting passed was “because it does infringe a little on personal property rights, and until we get that perfected, that’s one of the reasons we passed this demolition ordinance, is because it’s second-best.” From serving on the Brown County Area Plan Commission, Gore said she knows there’s strong public opinion out there about boards trying to change regulations on things that people may have sitting on their properties, like vehicles. “It is a balance that we have to be careful of,” she said. As far as community beautification, she highlighted the Brown County Recycle Center’s initiatives such as recycling services and litter clean-up.

What can or should the town council do about noise?

Gore said the town does have a noise ordinance that was not being followed very well, but the council has instructed local police to start enforcing it. “We have made it our mission to combat that (noise) and to enforce the rules that music can be played up to 10 p.m. and no later than that,” she said. She said she had talked with the owners of one particular business and they were going to do some enforcement on their own, and that’s the way she’d prefer that it be handled rather than getting police involved.

Roberts said he thinks the ordinance needs to be enforced and the council “needs to be really strict about making that happen” for the comfort of residents.

What else can the council do to increase the safety of pedestrians?

Roberts said the crosswalks in town look good, but they need to be a bit brighter. As far as a past discussion about building a bridge over 46 so that people can more safely get to the Y or McDonald’s, he said “that’s going to take some grants and a lot of planning to get something like that done. … We’ve just got to roll up our sleeves and make it happen.” He said he didn’t know much about the condition of the town’s sidewalks because he hadn’t been in town lately, but “if they need to be fixed, we need to take care of them if they’re a danger at all.”

Gore said that she feels the town has ample crosswalks, but “sometimes I wonder if the tourists see them.” She said the sidewalks do need repair and that seems to be a constant battle.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of separating Washington Township out of the Brown County Fire Protection District so that it could form a fire protection territory with Nashville, and/or having a volunteer or paid firefighter system?

Gore said the council talks frequently about helping free up Washington Township so that it could go in on a fire protection territory with the town, but “we just haven’t gotten that done.” She said the town does give money to the Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department, but “we don’t have the funds to have a paid department. … It’s just out of our range right now to be able to do that. It’s something in the long-term plan that we want to work toward, but at this point, our budget does not allow it, unfortunately.”

Roberts said that he didn’t know if it was possible for such a small town to have a paid fire department. “That’s something I’d have to really dig into to see if there’s a way we can make that happen.”

What could be done to make the town more welcoming to diverse minorities?

Both candidates said they thought Nashville was already pretty welcoming and they weren’t aware of any issues. From the audience, Mike Jeffries said that “if you don’t recognize that there is a problem with race, you’re missing the point.” Jeffries, who is white, said that Nashville has long been known as a “sundown town” where black people do not feel welcome after dark. Gore thanked Jeffries “for making us aware that there is an issue” and said it is “definitely something to look into.”

What’s the biggest challenge you see facing our near future in Nashville?

Roberts mentioned the aging population getting older, tourism being on “a little bit of a decline,” and “housing costs are really high for people.”

Gore agreed that affordable housing and housing availability continue to be challenges. She continues to believe that the growth in the tourist rental market is squeezing the market for housing for local people. “We need to kind of put a halt to or slow down conversion of tourist rentals. … There should be a limit for them,” she said.