(KAIR)--The candidates seeking the District One, Atchison County Commission seat, met for a debate Monday afternoon, held at Atchison City Hall, and moderated by Benedictine College political science professor John Settich.
Republican incumbent Jeff Schuele and his Democratic challenger Charlie Perdue fielded questions submitted from the public, with topics ranging from the technological advances in the county to how the county can better work with the City of Atchison.
Schuele and Perdue were also asked how they would handle economic development in the county. Perdue answered first, stressing the importance of job growth. He said “we are going to have to take and generate jobs...there is going to have to be some kind of program that we can generate jobs and bring jobs to Atchison, and that way, we can get the tax base up. The tax base has just completely depleted, and in order to accomplish anything, you must have a tax base”.
Schuele answered by outlining a plan to put a select group of people together to try and bring new business to the county. He said “it would be my goal, if we could, in the next four years, develop some sort of clearing house, something where there is one common place that we have a lot of great entities in this community that work together, when they are put together in the right positions”.
The debate, sponsored in part by the Atchison Area Chamber of Commerce, was held in advance of the November 4th election.
Also, as a service of KAIR 93.7 FM and MSC News.net, both candidates agreed to participate in an on air question and answer forum, which will be heard weekdays now through November 3rd after the 8:00 morning news and the noon hour report. Each segment will feature both Schuele and Perdue answering one question submitted by the public.