3-28-18 fdl city council race-the latest

The biggest race on next week’s spring election ballot locally is for Fond du Lac city council where five candidates are running for  four seats.  Challenger Donna Richards says her top priority is having an engaged community.   Richards is the former North Fond du Lac village clerk and has a masters degree in community and regional planning from Iowa State University.  Richards says one of the big problems facing the city is a stagnation in wages.  She says a lot of people don’t have a lot of money to spend.  “I think that has made the difference in this community over the last eight or nine years,”  Richards told WFDL news.  “I think that is partly why we have been losing our stores, you see houses that are decrepit.  I spoke with the Mercury workers.  I actually asked them how many of you own boats?  Just a half a dozen hands went up and it was a full room.”   Council president Karen Merkel  is running for a third term.  Merkel says she believes the city is growing and in general  residents are doing well  financially.  “If you look at the larger companies in town, for example, Excel Engineering…they just added on, C.D. Smith is building a brand new building, we have Mercury that is doing good.  I think the economy is doing well here in Fond du lac and we’re moving forward.”   The other candidates are challenger Ben Giles and incumbents Derek Terbeest and Kay Miller.