Municipal elections will be held Tuesday, which means voters in Baldwin City, including Baker University students who are registered locally, will get a chance to elect members to the city council and school board.
Candidates for at-large, four-year positions on city council include incumbents Nancy Brown, Tony Brown and Ted Brecheisen. Challengers are Jennifer L. Hayes, Kenneth D. Niehoff, and former city council member Kenneth D. Wagner.
On the school board side, incumbents Alison Bauer, Scott Lauridsen and Blaine Cone are running unopposed for positions one, two and three, respectively.
Vying for at large position seven are Teresa Arnold and Joshua Mihesuah.
Baker students were absent from a candidate forum held on Tuesday, although the university was represented among the field of candidates by Arnold, a Baker alumna, and Tony Brown, who is associate professor of psychology and psychology department chair at Baker.
Arnold mentioned her previous work in the school district, her upbringing in Baldwin, and her attendance at Baker as contributing to her qualifications to make decisions about local educational issues.
After humorously mentioning his lack of political and financial experience and jokingly calling himself “the least qualified candidate,” Tony Brown cited his skills as professor of psychology as being an asset.
“What I am trained to do is to analyze information and to synthesize it and to try to make decisions based upon that information that I’ve looked at,” he said. “Contrary to what mystudents will tell you, I’m not bad at communication.”
Forum moderator and Vice President of the Baldwin City Chamber of Commerce Ivan Huntoon asked the candidates how they would encourage and increase cooperation between the city of Baldwin City, the school district and Baker University.
“What are some projects or issues on which you feel these entities can work together?” he asked.
All of the candidates seemed to agree that communication was a key element in increasing cooperation.
“We’re not talking to each other as much as we should,” Hayes said.
Wagner had praise for Baker University President Pat Long.
“I’ve gotten to know Dr. Long a little bit and think her heart’s in the right spot,” he said. “I think she wants to be a good member of this community.”
Tony Brown said that because of the differing goals of the three entities, some division is inevitable.
“But I think we make it out to be bigger than it is,” he said.
Tony Brown said he believes that “bottom-up” cooperation was equally important as administrative coordination.
“The people that are parts of these organizations need to start to build some bridges,” he said.
Bauer noted that Baker and the school district are the two largest employers in Baldwin City.
“It behooves us to get along, and I think we can do so and work even more closely together in the future,” she said.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.