Spencer Mayor Candidates Talk Water Issues, Constituent Communication At Debate

The city’s water conditions, the mayor as a full-time or part-time position, and better communications with constituents…some of the issues discussed by the 3 candidates for Spencer Mayor Thursday night.

The 3 candidates participated in a 90-minute debate where residents had the chance to ask questions of concern.

A majority of the debate’s questions came from recent concerns with recent sample testing indicating contaminants in the water. Incumbent Mickey Robinson said it’s an expensive issue that has not happened overnight. He said the city is already actively working to address this.

“That takes money to replace these pipes that have been in the system for a long time,” Robinson said. “It needs to be running from the river into the water plant which is what we’re working on right now. That’s about $6 million. Also, we need to put new lines in the system.”

Surrounding cities have the mayoral position as a part-time job. Candidate Dwayne Farmer was asked how the position can be justified as a full-time job with just 1,500 residents.

“It is something that needs to be looked at,” Hodges said. “I said before that we need to be a metropolitan government at one time. But will all the issues going on, I think we need to stay with both governments at the moment, and maybe somewhere down the road we can reevaluate the issue.”

There was a recent issue with residents being notified about a meeting cancellation. When asked about how to better this communication, Candidate Alisa Farmer said she would first look to social media.

“Website, yes, keeping that up to date, positing notices, and sometimes you just have to depend on the word of mouth,” “It might get to a time at some point in the future where we can get a notification phone call out.”

The three candidates will be on the ballot for the Mayor of Spencer in the November election.