Editor’s Note: The Boscobel Dial as received calls and messages about the mayor candidates and wanting more info on their positions as mayor. We have reached out to the two candidates on the ballot for April 5 and they have agreed to answer five questions over the next four weeks.

Robin Baumeister

1. What’s more important for our city right now: building new homes and commercial space or rehabbing/ expanding/better utilizing our existing homes and storefronts?

While all of these options are important, in my opinion, we have focused on economic development and industrial park expansion over the past 20 years, and now that we have a successful industrial park with good paying jobs, it is important to start developing more housing. If we could partner with developers to build new homes and apartments, we would have housing for those that work in this City; therefore, increasing school enrollment, local business support, and overall community growth; therefore, housing would be best for our city at this time. In my opinion, building new condominiums for our single and retired residents would allow them to downsize and sell their homes to families, which would result in increasing our school enrollment, bringing more revenue to the city and businesses. We do have businesses that want to relocate, expand and open here. We need space for them to be able to grow here, with new space we can fill these needs and show growth for others to want to come here.

2. How do you plan to involve residents in the decision making process in our city?

Throughout the last few years, I have spoke with a lot of residents and found out that in our community we have many citizens and youth who want to be involved with decision making they just don’t know how. I think if we invite them to have a voice and get involved in their community using their passion we will have lots of interest in the community and help make educated decisions to benefit not only our residents, but also the school district and local businesses.

3. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

If I were awarded a million dollar grant I would give $500,000 to the emergency services in our city. We have wonderful volunteers that give selflessly of their time to others and I would be happy to help them with pursuing a new facility that would house the Fire Department, EMTs and Boscobel Police Department since they all work together hand in hand, this would enhance their ability to communicate between all departments for the good of our community. I would also like to see mental health/counseling services offered in the same facility. The other $500,000 would go to the school/city to come together to start upgrading the school with adding in space to host community events also. We need more space for our students, and it would be nice to have opportunities to host bigger events which would benefit our residents and students both with revenue and social engagements.

4. Mention a strength that qualifies you for the mayor’s position.

I feel my ability to include and work with many different groups of people in multiple situations will be an asset to the leadership role of mayor for the city of Boscobel. That along with my love for this community and passion for wanting to help would be beneficial to the current administration in pursuing options. In addition, I have worked for the Chamber of Commerce over the past couple of years, and have help increase membership by 19 which shows that my ability to provide people with information and show them the benefits of being a part of this community or organizations is evidence of my ability to lead.

5. If elected, what three steps would you take to put our city on a firmer financial footing?

1. Going back to question #1 I think if we can increase our available housing and commercial opportunities, we would be able to assist in strengthening our schools, which will result in community pride! We have a great community here and I look forward to being your leader to help show others that they want to be part of.

2. As we increase housing opportunities we could get our doctors, teachers, and other staff to live here in Boscobel instead of commuting for their employment.

3. We also have many tourism opportunities here. Tourism brings in more tourism dollars to our community in more ways than one, but especially when it comes to supporting our local businesses. We have so many great recreational activities available to us which can appeal to vacationing families, college friends, singles looking for opportunities, and family reunions. There is so much to do right here in our own backyard, and I look forward to being your leader and promoting the City of Boscobel.

Brenda Kalish

1. What’s more important for our city right now: Building new homes and commercial space or rehabbing/ expanding/better utilizing our existing homes and storefronts?

I believe that both options are equally important for our city. There are already pre-existing buildings that businesses could utilize, but we could also use more commercial space and land for building more homes such as subdivisions for families that would like to relocate to our city. We need to approach this issue in a way that would make it more promising for businesses to come to our city and more people to move here because of the businesses and recreation that we provide.

2. How do you plan to involve residents in the decision making process in our city?

I think if we made it easier for the citizens of Boscobel to have better communication options with the city, we could probably get more people involved in some of the decision making, trying to get them more involved by giving them details about what is taking place and asking them for their opinions and ideas. At that point, we would need to have more public hearings to encourage the residents to come to have their say on things so they feel like they actually matter since they are what makes up the city and should be involved.

3. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

If this was a totally free grant that did not require city matched funds as some grants do, there would be so many possibilities for use of that money. To begin with, I would like to get input from the residents of Boscobel to get an overview of what they would like to see. Also, I would like to see what could be done to reconstruct the drainage of Saunders Creek to prevent any further flooding that Boscobel may have in the future, possibly finding ways to build up some areas that are currently in the flood plains that could then be used for businesses or new homes. Others have approached me several times in the past about our Christmas lighting and decorations around the city. I have been approached by many residents that are very disappointed in the Christmas decorations. Maybe we could use some of the grant money to buy new decorations and lights to make the streets look more colorful and festive during the winter months.

4. Mention a strength that qualifies you for the Mayor’s position.

Other than my experience on City Council for 13 years, I would have to say some of the strengths that I have are that I am a go-getter, very ambitious, and eager to finish projects once they are started. Also, I like that I am approachable so people feel comfortable coming to me for questions, concerns, or ideas that they may have so they can get answers. I am knowledgeable in many different areas, would be free to do hands-on projects, creative, and absolutely love a challenge. I am an excellent listener and always want to hear both sides of any issue before finalizing any decisions. I have experience as a business owner as part owner of Terry’s Tire and Tow.

5. If elected, what three steps would you take to put our city on a firmer financial footing?

1. We need to define our goals for the city…not trying to go beyond our financial budget and having the citizens taxes go way up, maybe looking for more grants that are available as there are many different grants out there for just about anything.

2. Have some sort of emergency fund set up in case of something unexpected happening and then trying to figure out where we will get the money if it was not already in the budget.

3. Try to come up with ways to make our city more appealing and tempting for businesses to want to build in Boscobel, maybe go out and approach some businesses to see if they would consider the possibility of building in Boscobel. If we can talk one-on-one with some of these businesses promoting our city, they may show more interest which, in turn, would bring more revenue and residents to our city.