Camanche council candidates discuss sewer, roundabout
Oct. 16—CAMANCHE — Candidates for city council in Camanche spoke during a forum Thursday about the need for sewer improvements and whether they support a roundabout.
Current City Council Members David Bowman, Brent Brightman and Danny Weller are running for reelection. Robert Determann and Jenny Hesse are also running for seats on the city council.
Hesse was not present at Thursday's candidate forum.
Determann said Thursday that the city council has been deficient in addressing sewer issues in the city. There is a big sewer problem in the area of town where Determann lives, he said.
Determann supported spending money to help solve sewer issues in the city.
"We need to look into redoing the sewers also in the community because the city has to come out about twice a week to clear the sewer over at my neighborhood," Determann said. "And they flow the stuff back into my basement. So I know for a fact that we need to start looking at our sewers. The river side of the city is old."
Addressing sewer issues is not something the city can just start throwing money at, Bowman said. The city needs to conduct studies and understand where the problem areas are, he said.
"We have to set priorities because this is something that's going to take years to fix and a lot of dollars," Bowman said. "So we want to make sure those dollars are spent the right way at the right time in the right places."
Addressing sewer issues is something the council has discussed the last four years, Brightman said. It takes a lot of dollars.
City Administrator Andrew Kida has led the city down a path seeking grants and additional funds from different places, Brightman said. "We are wholeheartedly looking into that because we know we have issues on the old side of town," he said.
"All the infrastructure under there it sits by the river, so its got issues with that as well," said Brightman. "It wasn't built right back in the day. It's not built to period today, obviously, because that's where we have the most issues at," he said.
"But it takes millions and millions of dollars. So we are, and I want to continue on, focusing on that, because that is one of our biggest issues that we have right now," Brightman said.
The city does have some deficiencies they need to work on, Weller conceded. The city is making quite an improvement on those, he said.
"We had sewers and roads and other infrastructure," Weller said. "We need to improve our water system a little better too. It just takes time," he said.
"We need to revamp our capital improvement plan once in a while and add in what we need. In time, we'll get there," Weller said.
When asked about referendums and whether the city should use them to get feedback from the community on certain projects, Bowman admitted certain city projects, such as the roundabout, may not be popular.
There are citizens who are pretty opposed to roundabouts and do not want to hear about it, Bowman said.
"It's a safety issue," Bowman said. "We have an intersection which is dangerous. People get into collisions there pretty frequently," he said.
"We engaged the state to do a safety study. The state came back and gave us recommendations. We got grant money. We have to spend very little of the city's money. We're going to get a roundabout," Bowman said.
"We're going to improve the safety of that intersection. So that's important to do. If we did a referendum, we'd probably end up with a four way stop or something in there. That's not going to work. So we have to do the right thing<" Bowman said.
Brightman is also in favor of the roundabout, he said.
"Being on the fire department, I've seen some of the catastrophes that have happened out there," Brightman said. "It's not been good. And it comes down to a public safety issue. And why not do it? We're getting pretty much all the money for it."
Determann is not a fan of roundabouts, he said. A semi driver for 23 years, Determann said they are not semi friendly. There is a lot of semi traffic on the road, he said.
"The problem I have with roundabouts is the fact that you're supposed to yield to the oncoming car, and nobody does," Determann said. "And I have a feeling there's going to be more accidents in the roundabout than just the regular way it is."
Brightman noted the speed limit in the roundabout will be 25 miles per hour instead of 60 or 65 miles per hour. The crashes will be less severe, he said.
Determann understands they will be less severe but when there is a 80,000 pound tractor trailer involved, the outcome at 25 miles per hour is not good, he said.
Ensuring that the roundabout is designed correctly is important, said Weller. "If you have a poor design, semis are really going to have a tough time in navigating through that," he said. "So that's what our biggest thing is the engineering. If we don't do that right, we are wasting your money."
Hesse submitted a statement that was read by Moderator David Pillers at the candidate forum. Hesse said the most important issues are hearing what citizens want for the city, the city's water problem and wanting to see the growth of Camanche for the good, according to the statement.
