Voters and the local press questioned the two City Council candidates in the November general election on several issues Thursday night. during a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters and Siouxland GO.
Incumbent Julie Schoenherr is seeking her second four-year term on the council. She is being challenged in the Nov. 7 general election by Tom Murphy, who garnered the second-highest number of votes in Tuesday's primary election. A third challenger, Tricia Frederick did not advance.
Schoenherr is a Sioux City business woman who previously owned and operated SoHo American Kitchen & Bar.
Murphy is a life-long Sioux Cityan who served as the city's chief building inspector before retiring.
Schoenherr and Murphy agreed that the biggest issue facing Sioux City is the deteriorating state of the wastewater treatment plant.
In May the council approved the final reading of a sewer rate hike to fund a rebuild of the plant. It has a history of compliance issues with the state. the Iowa DNR has filed suit against the city over repeated environmental violations
Before any work starts on the plant, Murphy said the city needs to find out the future needs of the highest users.
“Have meetings with the actual people that are the highest users and the DNR and the actual building permits and the plans so we can get this squared away and get this matter taken care of. It will be the biggest, highest money amount that’s ever been done in Sioux City and that’s where I feel my construction experience will really come into play in this matter.”
Schoenhher said that the there are a lot of hurdles to overcome to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant.
"We have a lawsuit pending against us, for past performance, we’ve got to face that yet, we have a committee formed, we have people from the public, we have representatives from our sister cities, we have representatives from the industry, six of them on our committee as well. We had our first informal meeting a week ago Thursday.”
Murphy added that the upgrading of the wastewater treatment plant is vital to the future growth and success of Sioux City. Murphy and Schoenherr said the city should be able to "keep an even budget."
