A community-organized group is hosting a forum for commissioner candidates next month, aiming to foster dialogue between local officials and residents.
The Edgewood CommQuest Committee will hold a “Meet the Candidates” meeting Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. at the Edgewood Community Center, according to Barbara Evans, who heads the ad-hoc committee.
The forum, titled “Charging into Edgewood’s Future,” will focus on candidates’ plans for the town, Evans said in a statement released to candidates.
“We are excited about this opportunity to build relationships between Edgewood’s leaders and community members,” Evans wrote in the invitation.
The committee plans to collect questions from residents through social media platforms NextDoor and Facebook’s East Mountains 411 group, then summarize them into a manageable number based on content. Topics will be shared with candidates in advance, Evans said.
Evans emphasized that the meeting will focus solely on future plans rather than past issues. The committee has warned that anyone who “whines about issues from the past will be asked to leave,” according to the invitation.
The community-sponsored event comes as Evans said residents felt previous town-sponsored candidate meetings had “a very limited, selective agenda of noncontroversial issues.”
“We, the residents of Edgewood, are taking our town back,” Evans said.
Candidates can respond or ask questions by contacting Comm_Quest@aol.com.
The committee expressed concern that candidates who fail to attend could miss an opportunity to build positive relationships with Edgewood residents.
