With less than a week before the city elections on Nov. 3, municipal candidates came together Tuesday night to discuss local issues.

“Unfortunately, the conversation didn’t really deal with students,” said Adam Bentley, of the College Hill Partnership and a University of Northern Iowa graduate student. “As we look years down the road at how we want to plan and develop as a city, I think inclusiveness is going to be key to making sure that we are growing in a balanced way, that we’re keeping students in town to work, that we’re making Cedar Falls a viable place for students after graduation. Now, that really wasn’t addressed all too much tonight.”

Duoc Nguyen, a graduate student in psychology, held a similar sentiment.

“I didn’t hear too many things that would affect me,” he said. “(Complete streets and repairing University Avenue) – I heard that and that’s a really good idea. But I’ve been at UNI since 2004 and University Avenue has been terrible. I thought they could have done a little better job of repairing it and a little quicker, too. And it’s still not done, yet. It’s annoying … It’s like riding down a rumble strip everyday as I go to school.”

Though Nguyen, who was attending his first local government meeting, thought the debate got a little boring at times, he expressed interest in keeping informed.

“It’s a good thing to know what’s going on in local elections,” he said.

Several candidates talked about the possibility of a student liaison on the panel at City Council meetings.

“I would like to have a liaison sit right on the council,” said Dave Sires, mayoral candidate. “He’s not going to have voting power, but he is going to sit here and we’re going to learn what UNI is doing.”

“I would agree with Dave that having representation sitting up here to give input is critical,” said Frank Darrah, 5th Ward Council member. “There would be a wide spot in the room, people, if UNI wasn’t here.”

Gary Winterhof also expressed an interest in hearing input from students, but felt that having a student liaison sit on the council would be unfair.

“How can I let a student sit on the council,” he said, “without leaving out the other citizens of Cedar Falls who’ve been attending City Council meetings for years?”

North Cedar Falls became a central focus for much of the night. Issues surrounding the area, including housing redevelopment after the flood, improving Center Street and getting a clean water to residents of North Cedar Falls who don’t have access to a sanitary water supply.

The clean water issues struck a nerve with many of the members, including Mark Neidert, At-Large candidate for City Council, and Gage Rewerts, current UNI student and mayoral candidate, who expressed their disbelief.

“Unbelievable! We live in this city and we can’t get clean water to everybody?” Neidert said. “Shame on us, shame on the city, shame on the utility companies. There has got to be a way to fund this.”

“Access to clean water is a basic human right,” Rewerts said. “And for a large and prosperous city like Cedar Falls, for some of (its) residents not to have access to clean water. That just blew my mind … It’s definitely something that needs to be looked into and hit head on.”

Another hot topic for the night was implementing a Tax Increment Financing district around College Square Mall. The TIF would fund development projects in the area with the idea that increased tax revenue from the district would help pay back the money originally used to fund the project.

Nick Taiber, At-Large candidate for City Council, believes that the TIF district is a “moral hazard.”

“Do we really want to get into the job of dictating how a developer is going to spend that money and making sure that money stays in Cedar Falls?” Taiber said. “It’s a slippery slope.”

On the other side of the issue, Winterhof believes that a TIF would provide incentive to bring in new businesses and create economic growth.

“They would have to do something positive in order to see something come back from this particular tax.” Winterhof said.

In his remarks about the future of Cedar Falls, Mayor Crews talked about the spirit that keeps this city running.

“We have a good sense of community spirit, (which some say) has been lost,” Crews said. “I say, ‘look around the room.’ … We have volunteers coming out our ears. That’s one of the things that’s great about Cedar Falls … Community spirit, which I don’t think has been lost. It’s here.”

After the debate, Bentley talked about the importance of local government.

“Local government is the closest form of government to the students. It’s everything from their safety, the way they walk to campus, the snow on the roads, everything,” he said. “I hope that students get out and vote and realize that their vote plays a pretty large role in what their lives are going to be like here at UNI. So, get out and vote.”

Leaning closer to the microphone, he made his point clear,” GET OUT AND VOTE.”