Portage mayoral election a rematch of four years ago
NWI Times
Oct 15, 2011
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/portage/portage-mayoral-election-a-rematch-of-four-yearsago/article_ba28421f-7616-59c7-889e-5707c5c2fdf4.html
Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories involving the Portage mayoral election.
PORTAGE | This year's mayoral race is a rematch of the two candidates from four years ago.
The difference is one candidate, Democrat Olga Velazquez, is the incumbent. She defeated Republican James Snyder four years ago by just more than 300 votes.
"I want to fulfill and complete what we started. I want to fulfill the commitment I made," Velazquez said about seeking a second term.
Velazquez said she's started several projects during her first term, such as the Stone Avenue stormwater project and construction of the University Center, and wants to see them completed.
"These are things that can't be completed in one term," she said.
Snyder, senior loan officer at First Financial Trust Mortgage, said he's taking a second shot at the mayoral seat because of what's not been done in the past four years.
"A lot of the things, a lot of the good ideas we talked about four years ago, none of them have been done," Snyder said.
Among issues being discussed by the candidates is economic development.
Velazquez said despite the economic downturn during her term, she has been successful in bringing development to the city.
She points to the relocation of Graycor Construction, bringing 50 new jobs to AmeriPlex at the Port as well as expansions at PSC Machining and Engineering and NLMK Indiana, which together brought in 41 new jobs.
The most significant accomplishment, Velazquez said, is bringing the U.S. headquarters of Fronius, a solar inverter manufacturer, to the city. The company is expected to bring more than 500 jobs to the city.
"With Fronius, the bottom line was AmeriPlex was there. They took the risk. The same is true for BP and Graycor," said Snyder, adding he intends to be more aggressive in soliciting businesses to the city.
He also points to the city-owned north side business park and a lack of development there. Snyder said his vision would be to facilitate the development of a state-of-the-art training center for police and fire departments from throughout the region.
He also said the city has a reputation of being unfriendly toward business.
"The business world is a small community and Portage has a reputation of being difficult to do business in, and we are going to change that," Snyder said.
Velazquez disputes Snyder's claims of an unfriendly business climate and lack of vision for the city's north side development.
"What we've done is to make sure we have the infrastructure in place so that when the market rebounds they can be put in place," she said, using the wastewater treatment plant as an example and efforts to expand its capacity to serve future development.
Velazquez said the city has increased its marketing efforts, working with the Portage Economic Development Corp. to develop marketing tools for various areas of the city.
"Are there times we have to hold the bottom line and ask business to meet our standards? Yes, because that's what the Portage community wants," Velazquez said. She used the proposed Meijer development from a few years ago as an example. The developer wanted to include high-density housing as part of the development, she said, but residents had made it clear they didn't favor any additional apartment developments in the city. The city was working with the developer to alter the plans when the economic downturn occurred.
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