POSTED: Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 5:00pm
UPDATED: Friday, November 9, 2012 - 3:09pm
Candidates forum held on Saturday
COFFEE CITY — On Saturday at the new community center in Coffee City, 4 candidates showed up for an informal talk about the issues facing the small town.
The panel consisted of candidates for city council as well as Steve Gullekson, who's running for mayor.
"What we had today was we had an impartial moderator...and we invited all the candidates to attend. Unfortunately some candidates were unable to appear, but we had a very good group," Gullekson said.
The candidates that did participate belong to a group called "People for a United Coffee City."
Most of those that did not show are members of the "Concerned Citizens of Coffee City."
The tone at Saturday's event was pretty tame...a far cry from the heated city council meeting just a few months ago.
"Coffee City has had a very checkered past. And we want to...we want to get Coffee City going down the middle of the road and not veering off one direction or another that causes issues," Gullekson said.
Among the topics discussed Saturday...property tax.
None of the candidates present wanted it.
But because the liquor store revenue may not last forever, they're hoping for some new businesses to come in.
KETK also spoke with Ray Wakeman, the candidate running for mayor against Gullekson...
He tells KETK, "We were not contacted for any input about this meeting."
He says the Concerned Citizen candidates did attend a 'meet the candidates' event back in September.
In the meantime, Wakeman has been going door to door for support in Coffee City.