A great number of concerned citizens came out to hear what the candidates for the upcoming City Council election had to say during a special forum on Thursday night at the Western Oklahoma State College Student Center.

The event, sponsored by the Southwest Oklahoma Republican Women, Jackson County Democratic Women and the WOSC Student Senate, gave voters a chance to hear the individual views of each candidate seeking one of four open seats on the City Council for the next four-year term.

Seats that are up for grabs are located in Wards I-IV.

In Ward I, Rick Henry is up against current city councilman David Webb; in Ward II, the choice will be between present councilman Bob Beers and Scot Simco; Ward III finds incumbent Don Jouett against Perry Shelton and in Ward IV, Dean Garrett’s seat has been challenged by June Knight & Jack Smiley.

After a welcome from Debbie Davis, president of the SWORW, the forum moderator, Rev. John Johnson, pastor of the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church, explained the criteria for which the candidates could answer written questions submitted by the people of the City of Altus, and several members of the audience.

The issue of bringing a private prison to the city kicked off the Q&A period, allowing all the candidates an opportunity to express their specific views about the fledgling economic situation that has effected the entire nation and how Altus should go about trying to fix it.

Almost the entire panel agreed that Altus does need new businesses to curb decreases in city population but is a prison the kind of business that Altus in particular needs.

Simco does not believe in investing Altus money for that type of business and said that “Altus doesn’t need another first, it needs what’s best...”

Beers thinks listening to what the people want is the best thing to do, while Garrett expressed the importance of replacing things that the city continues to lose.

Knight and Smiley both agree that a lot of study and research needs to go into the idea before making a decision and Webb said he was excited to think about any business coming to the area, but he was not in favor of city financing.

Henry and Jouett expressed concern over the issue of the company building the prison for “free.”

Shelton expressed that he totally disagrees with the idea of having a prison here, no matter what kind of revenue it brings to the city.

Other issues for concern among the citizens of Altus include the newly purchased golf course, city beautification projects, the APD take-home car program and openness in government.

Candidates also answered questions about the loans out for QMA against the city budget, storm damage repairs and a heavy presence of City Council members on the City’s Economic Development Committee.

For closing remarks, each candidate was asked if he/she could commit to serving the full term if elected and whether appointments or elections were the best way to fill vacant seats.

Although everyone answered in the affirmative for the former portion of the question, there were mixed feelings for the latter.

Shelton, Beers and Garrett all agree that appointing people to serve is much more economical than having an election.

Knight called for a special appointment only in the event that there is too little time to hold an election.

Henry, Simco, Knight and Smiley like the idea of elected officials, while Webb and Jouett simply ran out of time to answer.

For more information about the nominees and the upcoming election, tune into KWHWs special series, “Know the Candidates,” Monday, March 30.