Seven seats make up the Ironton City Council, and more than half of them will soon become available. With 10 candidates in the running, the Nov. 8 election will be a matter of choosing the four.

RICH BLANKENSHIP

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I want to try to promote the growth and development of our community, and to obtain jobs through not only the port authority, but to seek funding and grants for our city. Basically, I'm tired of seeing our kids having to leave our area, I'd like to give them a choice whether to stay here and work, or that choice to leave.”

If the municipal fee fails, what's the best way to bridge a $500,000 gap in the city budget?

&#8220As I've said, I'm not in favor of cutting services to our citizens, I don't believe that's the direction our city needs to go in, but if it actually came down to it, I would have to support a municipal fee to bridge that gap. That frees up some time for us to come up with possibilities.”

What's the number one thing Ironton can do to attract new businesses?

&#8220Obviously, we could give our port authority the tools necessary to bring businesses in, and we need to clean up our town. As you drive downtown there are some buildings that are dilapidated and they need work. We only get one chance to make a good impression on people that are thinking of bringing businesses here.”

BOB CLEARY

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220The city has got some real financial problems right now, and with the experience that I've had as a city council member, eight years to be exact, and also I had six years as the mayor, I feel like I have had a lot of experience that I can take to the council floor to work on the financial problems that they have.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220Certainly, number one is the financial issues that we have right now. The cutting of city services is not acceptable, and yet it seems as though there's no cash flow coming in to cover the problem. So what we'll have to do is really get in-depth on the budget, see where the money's being spent, and see where we can make adjustments to bring it under control.

What's the number one thing Ironton can do to attract new businesses?

&#8220I think that the most economical and the first thing we need to do as a community is clean up our act out here. The first impression, the old saying says, is the lasting impression. It seems as though when you come into town there's not a lot of pride as far as cleanliness.”

DEVON HARMON

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I feel like nobody on council has ever put forth the effort to ever get the jobs into Ironton. They never acknowledged that it was their job. They all talk about past experience, but their past experience is doing us no good. I'm really passionate about Ironton, and I feel like I could do some good.”

If the municipal fee fails, what's the best way to bridge a $500,000 gap in the city budget?

&#8220If it doesn't pass, I would hope city council would have enough sense about it to pass it. If I were on council I would definitely vote to pass it myself. I feel like that's the only option. I'm pretty comfortable with the way I live now, and I wouldn't want to do without even the garbage man.”

What's the number one thing Ironton can do to attract new businesses?

&#8220The city council has to work with the port authority. We have to market Ironton, and we've not done that at all, and we do have to clean up our city. I think I read in the paper that somebody said it looks like New Orleans and it truly does.”

RALPH ‘BUTCH' HUFF

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I became frustrated with what was going on, I never thought that I'd be in this position. But what I've seen in this last council has really, really affected me, so I felt I had to step forward and take the challenge, because we've got to do better. Keep on doing what you're doing, you'll keep on getting what you're getting.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220Number one, our city finance director has indicated that as early as January we might not be able to meet payroll. The electorate will tell us if they're in favor of the municipal fee or not. If they're not, then immediate steps have to be taken to ensure that the payroll will be met, and in order to avoid at all costs the state of fiscal emergency that looms.”

If the municipal fee fails, what's the best way to bridge a $500,000 gap in the city budget?

&#8220Number one, I believe you have to have the municipal fee whether they vote for it or not. And I don't think that it should be a permanent thing, in a year or two, however long it takes us to get in there, go over each department and see where there's any fat, and to get that out of there, and to look at anything we have to look at.”

BOB ISAAC

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220Well I just felt that with the problems we were having that if I didn't run again that would be a cop-out. That I would be running away from a bad situation.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220Well, money problems are the biggest. How do you deal with it? In my opinion, there have to be cuts in the city government until we can attract enough industry so that we won't have to cut personnel.”

What's the number one thing Ironton can do to attract new businesses?

&#8220I know that some of the things we're doing are just the opposite. We're running people off. I think this CSO fee is going to hurt us really bad. I think we've already lost one client because of it. I don't know why anybody would want to come to Ironton with the fees we have here. Especially that CSO fee.”

LEO JOHNSON

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I got very frustrated as a citizen watching what was going on, and I got very frustrated with the direction of the city, and I decided to get involved. Voting, just going to the polls, wasn't really what I wanted to do. I wanted to do more than vote, I wanted to get involved.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220The biggest challenge is bringing any kind of economic development to our community. Right now, we have a city that has no stream of money towards economic development. We have a great city to offer, but we just have to change some things in the way we help businesses get here. I think the port authority is our main tool, and we have to make it as strong as possible.”

If the municipal fee fails, what's the best way to bridge a $500,000 gap in the city budget?

&#8220I don't want any more fees, but I don't want any more cuts, especially in our police and fire department jobs. I would have to look at a municipal fee in conjunction with other things. I would be in favor of passing a municipal fee if we could also drop the stormwater utility fee to a workable number for everybody. Also I think you could abolish the reciprocity tax. I don't think that's a fair tax on a small group of working people.”

RICK MEEKS

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I know it's headed in the wrong direction, and I think with my previous experience as the city finance director, working with the budget, that I can help curtail the overspending and hopefully get it back on the right track, and stop the unnecessary spending that we have.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220I think there's two things, getting a workable budget together, and getting more economic development in, working with the port authority to get some interest in business in this town.”

What's the number one thing Ironton can do to attract new businesses?

&#8220I think working with the port authority is the thing. The mayor and the port authority need to get out and stress the importance and show the land that we've got. They need to get out there and just push the city to new businesses.”

RAYMOND ‘FRANK' MURPHY

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I wanted to do it because of the future of our kids, my kids and everyone else's. I want my kids to grow up here; I've got one who's got his heart set on playing Ironton Tiger football. I just feel that I can do a lot of good for Ironton, and make a future for all our kids in Ironton so they have a place to call home.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220I think the number one challenge in Ironton is to eliminate the individuality. If we all pull together and work together, the city council, the mayor, the citizens, if we can all work together we can fix our problems.”

If elected, what's the first issue you want to tackle?

&#8220No matter who's elected, the first issue has to be the budget to avoid state takeover, then we have to start working on revenue and making ourselves presentable to businesses, so they want to come in.”

BILL NENNI

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220I guess I've always felt a civic duty to serve on city council. I was appointed and feel like the rest of my duty would be to serve at least one term.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220The biggest challenge without a doubt is the lack of funds in the budget itself. There are two choices: to increase the revenue, or decrease the expenses.”

If the municipal fee fails, what's the best way to bridge a $500,000 gap in the city budget?

&#8220If the municipal fee fails, I will not do anything to increase revenues. They will have made their decision, and they should be aware of what the consequences are. I will do what's needed to happen in the expense side of the budget to bridge the gap.”

W. BRENT PYLES

Why did you want to run for city council?

&#8220Well, I've been interested in city government and trying to make government more responsive to the citizens of town for a long time. Five years ago I stepped up and took an appointment to council for that reason, and then I ran for the four-year seat that's about to expire. I feel if you're a member of this community you have to be involved, and this is the level I need to be involved at.”

What is the biggest challenge facing Ironton? How do you overcome it?

&#8220The biggest challenge I think we have now is being able to afford the level of services we have become used to here in town. I believe that it's going to be a combined effort of the new council, and certainly members of the administration to operate this government and still offer a level of service near what we're used to.”

If the municipal fee fails, what's the best way to bridge a $500,000 gap in the city budget?

&#8220If the fee does fail, we're obviously going to still have around $3.6 million dollars coming into the general fund. I think council will have to look at how they're going to take those monies and appropriate them across the board.”