Mayoral candidates focus on city's needs

Growth, quality of life

Tom Carlson: For a high quality of life, we should follow smart growth concepts. We should adopt strategies that emphasize rehabilitation of the older parts of our community and reinvigorate undeveloped properties in the city so as to minimize the sprawl affect.

Chuck Wooten: Too many people coming into this area have to live outside of the Springfield area, due to shortages of suitable housing.

A large percent of new homes are being built outside of the city leaving the growth and quality of life outside Springfield.

One of the major ways to change this trend is for the city, to push the improvement of older neighborhoods; that way more housing will be available for people to live in Springfield.

Crime

Carlson: The crime rate in Springfield is still low compared to most communities our size. Nevertheless, the recent increases are a concern. I propose the following to reduce the crime rate:

Allow police who live in the city to take cars home at night so that they are a positive presence in the neighborhood.

Train civilian investigators to work non-injury accidents so that more police can be used to fight

crime.

Adopt Internet technologies like my CrimeSeen proposal so neighborhoods can have immediate information regarding activity in their neighborhoods.

Review compensation for police officers to discourage our best people (from leaving) for better paying jobs elsewhere.

Continue to look for ways like E-911 to cooperate with county law enforcement.

Wooten: I do not see the need for additional policemen at this time. The problem is policemen are not being assigned to police neighborhoods.

Officers need to be assigned and left in neighborhoods where they can get acquainted with the citizens therefore building up confidence. Improve the pay so our highly trained officers will stay in Springfield.

Business attraction

Carlson: The greatest single factor for a business in deciding where to locate is the quality of the work force. Therefore, to have the types of jobs we want in the community we need to have an educated work force.

I support the initiative with the chamber of commerce in which the medical community and the institutions of higher education will be trying to fill niche employment opportunities in the medical sector.

Finally, I think we should support the partnership industrial center.

Wooten: To attract businesses, it is necessary for the city to prove that they have a good educational system, a supply of workers and real estate.

No smokestack factories; (we) should stick with service, supply and medical.

Urban redevelopment

Carlson: I propose the following:

Pursue our fair share of state funding to complete Jordan Valley Park.

innovative financing and use of state programs to continue renovation of downtown buildings.

Encourage the state of Missouri to locate governmental offices in the center city area where convenient for "one-stop shopping."

Wooten: Many times businesses have offered to move into the urban area; however, the city requires so many unnecessary costly improvements causing the business or individuals to give up and locate elsewhere. I would work on eliminating or revising these requirements.

Transportation

Carlson: In 1996, the city asked voters for help in a new way.

On Feb. 6, by a 75 percent margin, voters renewed the one-eighth-cent capital improvement sales tax.

This means we will be spending $500 million during the next six years on infrastructure.

We have worked hard to build trust with our citizens so that we could ask voters time and again to renew this tax. We said what we would do and we did it, time after time.

By leveraging local funds generated by bond sales with state funds, Springfield has steadily improved our major streets. Anyone who travels Springfield these days can see the difference.

But as we continue to grow, there is much more to be done:

Implement cameras at busy intersections to ticket drivers who run red lights.

Create bus turn-off lanes so that traffic is not slowed down.

Continue improvements of intersections with dual turn lanes so that traffic moves faster.

Continue with traffic signal computerization.

Wooten: (The issue is) traffic, traffic, traffic.

Surveys conducted in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 showed the worst thing about living in Springfield was the traffic. This cannot be corrected overnight.

I would appoint a blue ribbon committee to look into this and offer suggestions and recommendations.

In addition, plans must be made now for growth so this problem will not continue to fester.