Discussing issues
Office seekers share thoughts during forum
Those who attended Tuesday’s Meet the Candidates Night got their money’s worth.
During a session that spanned nearly two and a half hours, candidates discussed issues ranging from medical marijuana to school finance to county record keeping during the Jay County Chamber of Commerce event at Arts Place.
The event may well have stretched to three hours, but the portion of the night dedicated to the race for Jay County Commissioner was shortened after candidate Brian Aker had a fire just hours earlier at his business, Aker-Taylor Plumbing & Heating (see related story). Brian Aker and his opponent, his cousin Chad Aker, made brief statements rather than answering questions from moderator Charlie Freel and the audience.
Most of the night was focused on three races — one for state representative in District 33 and two for Jay School Board.
Candidates for the District 33 seat, which represents all of Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County, answered questions about education, hate crimes legislation, cold beer sales, funding for the police academy and medical marijuana.
The most extensive discussion was about the medical marijuana issue, which is being looked at by a study committee ahead of the 2019 legislative session.
All three — Republican J.D. Prescott, Democrat Shon Byrum and Libertarian Dale Arnett — were open to medical marijuana in some form.
Arnett told the about 100 in attendance that he is in favor of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes as long as it has been tested and proved to be effective, and that marijuana for recreational use, which is now legal in nine states, will eventually come to Indiana as well. Prescott indicated that he’s against smoking marijuana for any reason but that he would be OK with medical use if the compounds can be extracted and distributed in a “pharmaceutical fashion.” Byrum advised that physicians should be listened to on the topic and that he his in favor of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.
Both Prescott and Byrum said they are against marijuana for recreation.
On other questions, Arnett was in favor of allowing convenience stores to sell cold beer while both Prescott and Byrum were against. Byrum was in favor of the state passing a hate crimes bill while both Arnett and Prescott said such legislation is unnecessary.
The bulk of the discussion with school board candidates — incumbent Cory Gundrum and Chris Snow for the District 1 seat, and incumbent Beth Krieg and Donna Geesaman for the District 3 seat — centered on the related issues of finance, enrollment and consolidation. (P.J. Corwin, who is also running in District 3, was not in attendance.)
Gundrum focused his comments on the need for the school corporation to continue working with local organizations on economic development in order to attract new businesses, and thus boost the population to help curb decades of declining enrollment. Snow, whose wife teaches at East Elementary School, frequently expressed support and admiration for teachers, saying the school board needs to do everything it can to give them the resources they need.
Krieg talked about the need to continue to build and improve programs, adding that positive steps have been taken by the board to combat “devastating” funding cuts from the state level. Geesaman discussed her desire for the school corporation to continue to provide more dual credit and vocational programs that will give students a leg up for post-secondary education or entering the workforce.
All four candidates expressed support for a plan that is in the works to move seventh and eighth graders to the high school building and close and sell both the Westlawn Elementary and central office buildings along with the Pennville and Judge Haynes elementary buildings that have already been shuttered.
The candidates also discussed school safety, with Gundrum, Geesaman and Krieg all saying the support an initiative to allow trained employees access to a gun, to be kept in a biometric safe, in case of a school shooting. Snow expressed concern about that idea and some of the planned spending on safety measures, saying his preference is to work toward having more school resource officers.
In the race for Jay County Recorder, incumbent Republican Betty St. Myers emphasized her more than 20 years of experience in the office and her record for following state board of accounts procedures. Her opponent, Democrat Dominic Martyne, conveyed a desire to raise the profile of the office and use the documents therein to help educate the community about its history.
Both Akers expressed their love for Jay County, with Chad touting his experience with Portland Fire Department and as president of the local emergency planning committee and Brian focusing on his 26 years as a business owner as well as the his collaboration on projects with both the city and the county.
