LaHarpe hopefuls sound off on issues

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March 17, 2015 - 12:00 AM

LAHARPE — Seven of the eight candidates for public office in LaHarpe sounded off Monday on a variety of issues, from local code enforcement issues to ways to attract new business.
The candidates appeared as part of a public forum hosted by LaHarpe PRIDE.
Appearing were mayoral candidates Cynthia Carr, the incumbent, and challengers Mae Crowell and Lloyd Wayne Turner. Four of the five City Council candidates were incumbent Savannah Flory, and Don Knavel Sr., David Lee and Danny Ware. Candidate Don Gay was absent.
Brief synopses of the candidates follow:
MAYOR
CYNTHIA CARR, incumbent, was elected to the City Council in 2003, then appointed mayor in 2010. She co-owns Jayhawker RV Park with her husband, Clayton.
“This is a small community (population 561). Everybody knows each other and helps each other. We have to be patient to get good things. We’re working on our electric (system), our streets. The 1 percent sales tax will help get the streets in good shape. We’re putting our parks together.
“I’m aware of many of the happenings, whether it be duties of city clerk, superintendent, maintenance worker and police officer. I understand ordinances and transactions we’ve been involved in. I spent time crunching numbers when we thought we were going to have a utility increase.” (Fixing the error prevented the increase, because residents now pay higher base charges.)

LLOYD WAYNE Turner has served as mayor previously and praised LaHarpe’s low utility rates, which he said are competitive with any town in the area.
“I look for people to call me and ask me if they can have something done. I’m a people person. When they had electricity go out, I’d go out and make sure guys had help. I’d be on call 24 hours a day, because I like people.
“My only objective, we’ve been lax on our ordinances the last 10 to 12 years. We have people with three or four cars and junk in their yards. We need to get our ordinances back into order to clean up our town.
“I don’t understand why we hired two policemen out of another city and we’re not getting the benefit.”

MAE CROWELL has served on the council the past four years. Previously, she owned and operated Mae’s Short Stop in Gas for 17 years. She also worked for more than a year as LaHarpe’s code enforcement and animal control officer.
“LaHarpe’s greatest challenge is drawing people here, and getting people who live here to have pride in LaHarpe.
“I like to look at both sides of an issue before I make a decision. Sometimes you don’t have that option and you do the best you can.
“A lot of people don’t realize we’ve had issues the last nine months with vandalism in our park and our gym. Code enforcement needs to be number one, but with problems we’re having now, law enforcement can’t be too far behind.”

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