City Council Candidate, Jerry Lord, in his store, M & K Town Store in Chehalis.
Current Mayor Pro-Tem and City Council Candidate, Terry Harris.
Both candidates for the Chehalis City Council’s one contested race agree that money is causing — and would solve —a lot of the city’s problems.
Challenger Jerry Lord is a business owner, Town Store M & K, in downtown Chehalis, he serves on the city planning commission, and has worked for a title company.
Lord told The Chronicle why he’s running for city council.
“You always have things that you see the city doing that you don’t necessarily agree with. This last year they wanted to start charging all the businesses $100 to set stuff outside,” he said.
Current council member and Mayor Pro-Tem Terry Harris told the Chronicle why he’s looking to get reelected.
“I have been on the city council for 4 terms and have been doing it for 16 years. It’s hard to leave when there’s so many irons in the fire and when you’ve got the community going in the right direction all the time you just don’t want to get off that train,” said Harris.
Lord said he is concerned with the city placing unfair regulations on businesses.
“All those council members have been there for a good 12 years. They’ve all been looking at everything the same way. If I win, and I don’t know if I will, I’ll bring a different perspective,” he said.
Lord sat in on the city’s Strategic Planning Retreat in september.
“If you look at their (the city’s) three-year goals, all of their goals are about spending more money. It’s a nice idea to be able to spend more money but I don’t know if it’s practical,” Lord said. “I’ll give a different perspective. Terry and I have two different backgrounds. I’ve worked for a title company, I’ve worked in title and escrow. I’ve done a lot of stuff with surveyors, realtors, developers, so I have a different perspective.”
When Harris was asked about future plans, he mentioned parks.
“As soon as Recreation Park is finished we have Stan Hedwall park right behind it, probably a couple years later, the Discover! Children’s Museum on the side of the freeway, the group is about $1 million away from having that come to fruition,” he said.
Harris also said big issues coming up include three union contracts that need to be negotiated, as well as a growing homeless population.
“And the real problem that we have is that our income into the city is now back up to its 2008 levels but our expenses are 2019 so trying to figure out how we can make things work on the limited budget,” said Harris.
When asked why he thought he was the better option for the city council position he cited his years on the council.
“I think mostly it’s just the experience. … With my continued efforts, the background will lead me where we need to go,” said Harris.
