Ranger-Review Staff Report
Candidates, elected officials and other local institutional leaders will be on stage this Wednesday, Oct. 5 to talk about the issues facing the community and answer questions from the public in a forum sponsored by the Ranger-Review. The event will be held in the Toepke Center auditorium at Dawson Community College from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The candidates for office invited to participate in the forum include Rep. Alan Doane and his Democratic challenger for his House District 36 seat in the Montana House of Representatives, Mike Ruddy. They are the only two local candidates involved in a contested race. State senator-elect Steve Hinebauch was also invited. Hinebauch is uncontested in the November election. County commissioner-elect Dennis Zander, who is also uncontested in the general election, will not be at the forum, as he is out of town that day.
All three county commissioners — Adam Gartner, Doug Buxbaum and Gary Kartevold — have been asked to participate as well. City council president Mike Dryden will represent the City of Glendive, but Mayor Jerry Jimison is out of town and unable to attend.
Glendive Public Schools will be represented by Superintendent Ross Farber. Glendive Unified School Board chair Jeanne Seifert has also been invited to participate. Vice President of Administration Kathleen Zander will represent Dawson Community College, as President Scott Mickelsen is also travelling on business.
The forum will be moderated and begin with questions previously submitted for the event by local residents. Audience members will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the participants directly.
Ranger-Review publisher Chad Knudson said the initial idea for the event was just as a candidate forum, since such things have been a rarity in Glendive in recent election years, but the decision was made to broaden the event to include more than just candidates.
“No one locally has supported or was supporting any kind of candidate forum to hear from our candidates for public office,” Knudson said. “So we started with that, but then in discussion we decided there were a lot of community issues that people are interested in that extend beyond the people who are running for election this year.”
Ultimately the purpose of the event is to give locals the very rare opportunity to have most of the community’s leaders in the same place at the same time and question them about issues which affect the community as a whole.
“There’s not a lot of opportunities for those officials to discuss things that might affect everyone in a single setting,” Knudson said. “We thought it would be a unique opportunity to get everyone together and talking about the same topics.”
DCC is co-sponsoring the event and providing logistical support. The Bucs Brew coffee shop will be open during the forum to provide refreshments.