Kevin James
Provide information about yourself, including background and biographical data:
I, Kevin James, grew up in a small town in Northwest Arkansas. My family raised cattle and instilled in me hard work ethic and sound family values. My mother was an elementary school teacher. My father and grandfather were successful cattle ranchers for over 60 years.
After leaving home in 1998, I attended the University of Missouri - Rolla (MS&T). At MS&T, I earned a B.S. and M.S. in Geological Engineering. After a short hiatus in Pennsylvania, I returned to the Rolla/Salem area in 2007 and started a career with a strong local employer. During that time, I met and married my wife, Katie; adopted our son, Tristen; and brought into this world our daughter, Cameron; and youngest son, Noah. My family has called Salem "our home" for the past decade.
Why should you be elected?
My hope for the community is to:
• Improve the wellbeing of our neighbors, including our youth;
• Develop infrastructure to be sustainable and efficient; and
• Ensure that city leaders take a balanced and metered approach to ordinance enforcement, budgeting, and project development.
While these hopes may appear lofty, there is momentum already in play that will allow our community to revive and develop into a well-rounded community.
What should be done to attract new businesses and expand existing business in Dent County and Salem, creating more and better jobs?
My focus will be expansion. Attracting new unfounded businesses can be tricky and exhausting to resources. New businesses require high, up-front capital and assurance of a return on the investment. The majority of successful businesses in the area feed from a given resource. These resources include but are not limited to: timber, cattle/crops, and mine ore/metal. The beneficiation of these resources employee large portions of the community and have stable futures. Other successful businesses are direct extensions of these industries. They provide the needed goods and services to sustain growth and expansion of those industries. While each industry sees ups and downs in the market, they all have weathered the down cycles with grace. From my point of view, the future of Salem rests in the ability to support these sustained industries. Opportunities to attract businesses in these markets can be driven and garnered by interaction with the newly created position, Director of Economic Development, Sally Burbridge. Her abilities to seek out the potential supporting businesses and attract them to the community will qualify her success in her position.
While tourism is not constant, it shouldn’t be overlooked. There are opportunities to expand the voice of tourism of the greater Dent County area with a focus in Salem. The challenge is to get those vacationers passing through our community to eat and stay by being attractive to those who utilize our natural resources. With all of this in mind, there are great opportunities to improve the potential business climate in the Salem area.
There are many vacant and dilapidated buildings and homes in Salem. What would you do to help correct this problem?
My first response is code and ordinance enforcement. There are promulgated codes and ordinances on the city record in Salem. The challenge is enforcing them and ensuring that there are enough teeth to create action and also not restrict the member of the community. Home owners do not want to see their property diminished due to a neighbor with poor habits. Living in a community, like Salem, comes with a set of requirements, or you could say responsibilities, from paying for a utility service that is provided to the user… to insuring your yard is not used as a dump site.
A comparable analog could be a STOP sign. STOP signs are posted at intersections for a reason. If the sign wasn’t posted at specific intersections, accidents would occur on a frequent basis or potentially at every passing of motorists. Codes and ordinances are in place to protect the people and their property. The City should work with the public to ensure compliance with codes and ordinances.
Discuss an area of the city of Salem budget you would attempt to change if elected?
The current budget is exceptionally tight. All of the potential opportunities in the budget should be considered. With education and understanding of the current and future challenges that the City of Salem faces, my hope is to contribute to a sound and balanced budget.
My greatest hope is to support the design and build of the new water treatment facility. This facility is decreed by Missouri DNR to meet a specific standard. I am hopeful that my skills and past experience can be utilized to hone the design of the water treatment facility. If successful, the future stability of our sewer requirements and subsequently the cost of providing the service to the community will be sustained or improved. This opportunity could fend off future requirements for increasing the cost of service to the community.
Harley Conaway
Provide information about yourself, including background and biographical data:
My name is Harley Conaway. First and foremost, I am a follower of Jesus. I’m the wife of Andrew Conaway, mommy of Karter Conaway, and daughter of Mike and Ahleesha Elwood. Salem has been my home for as long as I can remember, as my family moved here when I was two years old. In August of 2016, I joined my father as a real estate agent at Elwood Real Estate, LLC. Being in the business sparked my interest for what is going on in the city.
Why should you be elected?
Since becoming a Realtor, I have seen the many dysfunctions of our city. I hear the concerns brought up at our office, and I feel that the citizens of our city deserve to have people on the inside that fight to resolve the issues that they see daily and try to prevent new issues from arising. I would love the chance to actually work for YOU and get the job done.
What should be done to attract new businesses and expand existing business in Dent County and Salem, creating more and better jobs?
I feel that we need to make our city more “attractive” to outside business developers. We need to continue to upgrade internet and phone services for rural areas of the city/county. Being in real estate, I have seen many business owners, decide to buy in other cities because of the lack of high speed internet services in our area. Also, we need to create a more inviting/helpful environment within the City of Salem Administrative Office. New and current business owners need to be able to go into the city office and get all of the information needed to proceed with their business without leaving with unanswered questions. We need to develop a list of what a business owner can expect from the city in regards to business development, and it needs to be readily accessible to all new and current business owners so that there is no confusion. We need to make it easier for potential business owners to actually start a business, by working with them - not against them.
There are many vacant and dilapidated buildings and homes in Salem. What would you do to help correct this problem?
I feel that these dilapidated buildings and houses should be removed and the lots restored for public use or resale (earnings from resale could be a great source of extra city funding). In a recent Economic Development meeting, Sally Burbridge the Economic Development Director, stated that there is a grant that could pay for the removal of said buildings and homes if the city chooses to apply. I’m for the removal and would be one to fight for this action to be completed. Cleaning up our city is a great benefit for future city growth, expansion, and bringing in new businesses.
Discuss an area of the city of Salem budget you would attempt to change if elected?
After looking over the city’s budget, I feel that there are a few areas that could be adjusted. However, at this point I feel like there should be more money spent on properly training our city utility office employees. We have some new programs that are coming out, and in order for these programs to work properly, the utility office employees need to be properly trained not only on the new programs, but also on the current system used. I feel that if training were to occur, there would be fewer complications and it would make their jobs much easier. If the employees have confidence in their capabilities and knowledge of the system, citizens would also have confidence that their utilities are handled correctly and that they are given correct information.
