Candidates ready for election
Randy Watts and Peter Brunson are up for election in Logan’s mayoral race Tuesday. Watts advocates cleaning up Logan and Brunson wants representation.
Brunson said he advocates total representation. He said he would like to split the city council into five districts to “make sure all citizens have a vote.”
Watts said this is not the best possible choice.
“Splitting into five districts will cause separation and disparity. It will create a west-east attitude and be counterproductive,” Watts said. “We need to improve dialogue about county issues with the entire valley.”
“Money is drying up,” Brunson said. He said he recently spoke with arts groups and has said they must change the way they work rather than relying on subsidies. “Citizens must pay for what they get,” Brunson said.
In regards to subsidized groups, Watts said, “Sometimes we must go with the special interest groups. We can’t close the Ellen Eccles Theater or the library or parks because they don’t bring in money.”
About Logan’s winter pollution, Watts said he plans to encourage those with the ability to do so to walk, carpool and ride the bus more. More education is essential, Watts said, to reducing the inversion during the winter, and he said he wants to put up more signs informing people of the air quality.
Brunson said, “The air is better than it used to be. I’ve lived in the valley for years and we just need to keep doing the things we’re doing. Drive as little as possible and take the bus. It’s really an individual solution.”
Traffic is also a big problem, Brunson said, but is something that the Cache Metropolitan Planning Organization is handling right now. He said they are looking at parallel roads east and west of Main Street.
If elected, Watts said he plans to funnel more funding towards better roads. “We are our own problem,” Watts said. “We are the big animal in the valley and we attract a lot of traffic.”
However, Watts said, his two largest issues are reclaiming inner Logan for single families by creating stricter enforcement of the zoning laws and implementing city-wide recycling.
“Right now the program isn’t paying for itself, but if everybody has a blue barrel it makes a difference. If we continue, the landfill will fill up and we would have to move it to Clarkston which would be a big inconvenience,” Watts said.
Brunson said the reason students should vote for him is he wants to give them a larger voice by providing greater representation through splitting the council into five districts.
-dilewis@cc.usu.edu