By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Will “intense” and “negative” campaigning erode the downtown shopping customer base or discourage new businesses from locating in Dowagiac?
Lyons took advantage of the Nov. 1 League of Women Voters candidate forum to announce that a medical arts facility such as one proposed in 2003 is not a dead issue, but very much alive.
Besides medical care, the mayor said another priority of a third term would be “making sure we have plenty of competitively-priced energy for the future.”
Furthering economic development “is too often viewed as a manufacturer coming into an industrial park and hiring people. That falls short of the entire issue, the economic well-being of the community,” Lyons said.
Hall said he would borrow one idea from Lyons: “When he was first elected, he did away with the policy of all questions being put into writing prior to City Council meetings. I want to see Dowagiac government return to representing the people - and not just policies and agendas.”
Hall said of his qualifications, “This is a very easy question to answer. I have the same experience to be a mayor as Mayor Lyons did his first term. Nobody else had experience when they started. Mr. Lyons stated he has a good business background. I have a business background because I've been fighting to keep mine open for about a year and a half, since I started speaking out against the city.”
Hall said his public service entails helping get the Cassopolis youth center open, volunteering with Scouts, Girl Power!, at his children's schools, from Sister Lakes Elementary School to Union High and at Lincoln Community Center.
Lack of experience “is not negative, it's a positive,” Hall said, “when you've got some of them sitting up here at City Council who've been here for 20 years. If you keep the same people in office, you keep going the same direction. You need new blood in Dowagiac, some fresh ideas and to think of all of the income brackets instead of the elite few.