With only two weeks left before Election Day and early voting in full swing, some candidates have shared their thoughts and opinions on local issues during forums.
The League of Women Voters of Brown County hosted two candidate forums on Zoom on March 31 and April 2.
Both forums for the Brown County Commissioners District 2 and Brown County Council District 4 races took place over Zoom and were recorded for the public to view afterwards. The forums were moderated by Brown County Community Foundation CEO Maddison Miller.
Candidates for the District 2 county commissioner seat answered questions on March 31. Democrat Stephanie Porter Kritzer and Republican John Kennard participated in the forum.
Absent from the forum were Republican candidates Diana Biddle and Ronald Sanders.
The following are some of the questions asked which weren’t already answered in the candidate questionnaires published in the March 23 Brown County Democrat election guide.
Q: What one issue or part of county government would receive more attention if you were elected?
Kritzer: One part is very difficult to say, but I believe that we want to have our young people coming back to Brown County and in order to do that we must provide good schools. We must add infrastructure for Wi-Fi and internet so that people can work from Brown County if they need to and that our students can get that. That’s one area that I think is very important. Of course everyone is concerned about roads and I think we need to take a look at how we’re dispensing those funds and what else we can do to serve people of Brown County.
Kennard: I think there’s two factors you have to consider. Over 60% of our population makes less than $30,000 a year and about 64% of the property in Brown County does not generate property tax. So recognizing those two things — and I agree with Ms. Kritzer — we need to do something to keep our people here. But how do you do that if you’re making $30,000 a year, you can’t afford a mortgage, car payment and childcare? And we need to look at that. So, that tells me that somewhere spending has got to be the area that you’re going to concentrate on — that’s the only place that we got that we can narrow. So the question then becomes are we spending wisely? Tell me how much money we’re spending on our roads and our roads are terrible. I ride a motorcycle. I’m going to tell you there’s not a road in Brown County that’s truly safe to drive a motorcycle and much less your car or truck. And the other thing is, how do you get young people to stay here if they can’t financially afford to live here? You’ve got huge blocks of land that aren’t generating any revenue because they’re tax free. They’re either a federal forest or a federal military base.
Q: What do you see as the top economic development opportunity in our county? What do you believe is the county commissioners’ role in facilitating this opportunity?
Kennard: We recognize that we don’t want a Ford plant, so the other question is how do we generate revenue? Revenue to be able to afford to do the things that we need to do to protect people in our county. I’d like to sell the music venue. I hope that doesn’t create ruffles … The county is on the hook for however many millions of dollars it costs to operate that. That’d be the first thing I would look at is how could I entice investors to come in and make a decision that they want to invest in our county by purchasing the music venue and get that burden off the taxpayers. Working for the health department, we paid $5,000 a month rent because the commissioners wanted to fund that while the COVID crisis was going on but that $5,000 was charged to our department so that we could provide a public service by providing vaccines to the county. So if it wasn’t for COVID, it wasn’t for the health department how are we gonna pay for the for the music center?
Kritzer: Well that’s a tough one. I’m not sure that selling the music center is the right choice, however, I know that there’s a lot of people who think that’s a good idea. I kind of feel like, “We’re in it, let’s make it work,” and it was pretty obvious that the commissioners were trying to pay the payments on the music center from the health department, from the money they got from COVID and they used it for several other things. They used it for court and paid the music center in order to keep it afloat. Opportunity, let me think. I think just stepping back and taking a clearer look at what it is that the citizens of Brown County need. Investors, definitely investors that are going to stay, definitely, and how to get those I’m not sure.
Q: Could you identify the top environmental concerns facing the county and what actions you could take at the county level to address them?
Kritzer: Mr. Kennard I’m sure is going to emphasize the sewer/septic issues and he’s very well known for that. Another thing that I worry about is some of the logging because it affects two things. It’s when you go in and just take a large piece of property and and take all of the lumber, all of the wood it leaves several issues that are going to be hard to fix. The other thing is that the logging trucks that are using our roads for getting the logs out, I’m not sure that they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. If they have big trucks then they really shouldn’t be on our roads.
Kennard: Ms. Kritzer’s right, you cannot have expansion and you can’t have a gas station on a septic system, you can’t have a car wash on a septic system. For instance if you look in Bean Blossom we’ve got the Dollar General and Brownie’s. Brownie’s is on pump and haul right now, it’s spending $1,000 a week to pump their septic because they don’t have a good septic system. You can’t have a gas station. So we do need to look at where sewer systems can be to our advantage. The other thing is I think we really need to spend a lot of time and concentration on our solid waste district. (It is) terribly underutilized in my opinion. We have a huge asset sitting right there at the fairgrounds with all types of equipment that we get money for, but a very small percent of the total population is using solid waste and that’s stuff we’re throwing away. That’s ending up back in the ground that can end up polluting ground water and I would love to see us with a major push in advocating for increased usage in the solid waste district itself. Funding is already there, it’s been assets.
Q: What is your opinion of the current resources in Brown County for medical, dental and mental health services what role if any do the commissioners have in addressing this issue?
Kennard: We don’t have a hospital and it’s very evident. For instance, if we end up with a food borne illness, those people that are sick go to Bloomington or Columbus. By law we are supposed to be notified when those issues happen from citizens in our county. It doesn’t happen. So we’ve got a three or four day delay from the time something major happens because it happens outside our county, but it impacts the citizens. With COVID, when it hits, people go to the hospital, we don’t hear about it. We have one doctor, I think, in town, we’ve got a couple of fantastic nurse practitioners. We’ve got a huge asset sitting at the wellness clinic that’s underutilized and financially affordable for almost anybody in the county. As far as mental health issues I can tell you we work with that daily and we don’t have the infrastructure in this county to help people with drug and addiction issues and we don’t have assistance, I don’t believe, the way we should have for mental illness help. It’s just not there.
Kritzer: I agree with John. We are definitely in need of more medical help. Although when I was growing up there was one doctor, you know, but we didn’t have the issues we have now. Specialists and the mental health issues and the drug abuse. I agree with him wholeheartedly on the drug abuse issue. It’s better I think, but definitely needs more. I’m very proud to have served on the school board when we started the wellness center. We’re hoping to expand that so that we have two nurse practitioners because we see a need for it and I use that clinic myself. They’re very informative very good about sharing my medical information with the specialist that I go to.
Q: Do you think the county would benefit from the development of a county-wide human rights commission? Why or why not?
Kritzer: I would think that they would benefit from that. I’m not sure how you would fund that or start it, but I know that we have a lot of people in the county who need to have someone stand up for them and help them through some things. Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. I’m not really sure how to expand on that.
Kennard: I’d have to have a definition of what we would expect from a human rights commission. I think, I hope, that I’m not offending anyone, I do not see a tremendous amount of ethnic diversity in Brown County. I don’t see issues that are race related. I can tell you by working in the hospital, the key to that is more of an economic issue than it is race or ethnic. I think you need to be aware of human rights issues. I do think you need to be aware of male/female issues. As far as civil rights, I don’t think I’m being blind to it. I do see a one-on-one economic rights commission that works with those of us, there’s a number of people in Brown County that just don’t have the wherewithal. You know if we’re going to food closets all over the county and relying on handouts — and a good percentage of our population does — I would say that’s probably a bigger concern than human rights as I perceive the media using the term human rights.
Q: What is the role of county commissioners regarding appointed boards in terms of member qualifications, identifying board responsibilities and monitoring performance
Kennard: That is an excellent question. There’s not a board in Brown County that can’t use additional members. If you look at the people that make up the boards, they’re the same people that make up the boards continually. It’s hard to get people to volunteer extra time, extra hours away from their family and every board is necessary. Most of every board that I’m aware of is a critical factor in putting Brown County and keeping it together and yet you can’t get people. First off most people that I’ve talked to and asked to volunteer, we had some recent openings on the health board, you know what the reason people don’t want to volunteer for boards is they can’t stand the personal attacks and if you look at every single board that’s significant, except I don’t see it at the alcohol beverage board. But if you look at planning and zoning and APC and the health board and a number of the other boards, those people that are volunteering their time and their efforts and their energy are getting attacked on a personal basis and that’s got to stop.
Kritzer: I would agree with John, again, that it’s tough to fill board members. I think a lot of people think that it’s very complicated and that you have to know a lot about the board you’re going to be on and you do have people mad at you a lot. I can tell you that I’ve had people upset with me about school board decisions and you just have to do what you feel is right, not be dictated by what someone in another leadership role would suggest and time is an issue.
Q: As a commissioner, what role would you play (if any) in determining priorities for road paving and repair?
Kritzer: I definitely think that that we need to take a look at how we’re doing the business of maintaining the roads. Are we prioritizing them? I believe at one time they were prioritized by commissioner districts. That each district had a certain amount of miles that they made sure was taken care of in a year’s time. That’s really just a political tool. One thing I have to say about being on the school board is that it’s nonpartisan. I can sit at the school board meeting and I can look to my left and I can look to my right and we have no one to answer to except the public. We don’t have any political affiliation. I couldn’t tell you how my fellow board members vote in the elections, so I think that should be wiped out and if you call or email you should you should expect a response. And I think that we’ve been missing that from what I’ve heard.
Kennard: You have to recognize we’ve got about 400 miles of roads in Brown County. Half them are asphalt, half of them are gravel. I live on a gravel road. In the old days, a commissioner ran for commissioner so he could get his road paved. I’ll probably never have my road paved. But it is a huge priority. In a county that relies on tourism we should have the best roads in the state and we don’t. We’re not doing something right. If you’ve got to go back and repave the road every five or six years, were the standards set for paving that road the right ones for long-term longevity? I’d like to have a whole entire inventory done on every asphalted road in Brown County to determine what’s it going to take to maintain that road for 10 or 15 years, not three or four or five (years). On the other hand, we have gravel roads in this county that two cars cannot go side-by-side on, so there’s got to be a standard. And I know people get concerned if you want to take a foot of their yard, but we have to be able to travel on these roads. Roads are a huge situation in our county.
Q: What is your opinion of the Brown County Redevelopment Commission’s proposal to create a county land bank?
Kennard: Great, but where are you going to get the land? That’s the issue. If you look, I have started a study on how much property is paying taxes and how much isn’t. I’m not against, this don’t get me wrong, but I think we have to look at the inventory. We have huge tracts of land, we have people that own 600, 800 and 1,000 acres of land in Brown County that they have no intentions of selling. We have a number of developers. One in mind has got 125 acres up on Helmsburg Road. He wants to develop that for moderate income housing. Well first off, he can’t do it without a sewer, you can’t do it with septics, so when you start looking at this inventory that we’ve got sitting there that basically is never going to be broken up. You’re not going to be able to have affordable housing in Brown County unless you can come up with a different solution. We’ve got to figure out what it is.
Kritzer: I sat on that committee as a member of the school board. I represented them and I have very mixed feelings. For example, the property next to me has a house that’s dilapidated. Nobody’s lived in it for probably 40 years. It sits right on the highway, but someone’s paid the property taxes on it and it belongs to them. Although I’d love to see something nicer there — it would probably be better for my property values — I don’t have to put up with a neighbor. As long as they’re doing it in a fair and positive way I think it could work, but we’ll see how that turns out. I hope it works.
