Glasgow City Council Forum
Candidates given instructions just prior to the Glasgow City Council forum on Monday October 21, 2024. Submitted photo.
Angela Briggs
Freelance Reporter
Around 200 people came out Monday night to hear from the candidates running for a seat on the Glasgow City Council.
Concerned Citizens of Barren County (CCoBC) hosted the forum and the questions ranged from term limits for council members to the council’s recent purchase of land.
Round one began with the group of 15 introducing themselves, all in attendance except for incumbents Happy Neal and Marlin Witcher. They answered three questions each.
Questions covered a broad range of topics, including the city budget, term limits and district representation and the city’s recent purchase of property.
Incumbent Max Marion compared the purchase of the property to buying a lottery ticket, saying the money spent there could have gone toward things that would help the people from Glasgow here now and not in bringing in immigrants. A position incumbent Patrick Gaunce’s social media account indicates he and Mayor Henry Royse support.
Marion was one of two candidates whose answers were greeted with immediate applause; the other was Tommy Burris. Burris was asked how he felt about moving the Confederate monuments that were on the square.
After a brief pause, he told the crowd that moving statues is not what we should be worried about, adding that when he talks to people in the community they want the focus to be on good paying jobs and improving Glasgow’s economy. Gaunce is the only candidate to publicly indicate interest in having the Civil War monument on the courthouse lawn removed.
Other questions included whether the candidate would support an attendance policy for council members. Matt Keith said he would support this policy 100%, he is also a supporter of term limits for council members.
Term limits got several responses of support from new candidates joining the only incumbent Marna Kirkpatrick voting a few weeks back to establish them. Her motion died for the lack of a mere second.
Incumbent Terry Bunnell said the most important issue facing Glasgow was the need for revenue diversification within the budget, noting that the occupational tax, which was recently increased, accounts for half of the city budget. Also noting it was how they had the funds to buy recent parcels of land totaling more than $6.7M.
The candidate forum was held at the Family Life Center at the Glasgow Methodist Church.
CCOB meets the first Thursday of every month at Immanuel Baptist Church and any citizen wishing to attend is invited.
Look for the Barren County Progress’ extensive coverage of the forum to be posted online at www.jpinews.com and printed in next week’s Barren County Progress.
