Voters will select three new city commissioners in St. Joseph next month, with six candidates from which to choose. News/Talk 94.9 WSJM hosted a candidate forum Friday morning on a variety of issues facing the city. One of the topics was the relationship between St. Joseph and its neighbor across the river, Benton Harbor. Commissioner Jeff Richards feels there are opportunities for the two cities to work together more. When he was mayor in 1994, they had the first Mayor’s Exchange Day with Benton Harbor.
“I firmly believe it’s long past due that we have another Mayor’s Exchange Day with Benton Harbor,” said Richards. “So that they can sit on our chairs, we can sit in theirs, and we can identify the challenges in both communities.”
Richards says the relationship is good, but can be better and he hopes Benton Harbor officials feel the same way. Shawn Hill says the Twin Cities Harbor Project is a great example of the cities working together.
“It looks like a good thing to me. We’ve just got to get everybody to maybe tweak it a little bit,” said Hill. “To me, it brought the communities together to work on something like that.”
Commissioner Lynn Todman spends a lot of time in both communities.
“There’s a lot of fear on both sides (of the river), a lot of misperceptions about the other side, and I think one of the things the commission can help do is shed those fears about the other,” said Todman. “It’s critical to our survival that these two towns find ways to collaborate.”
Former St. Joseph deputy public safety director Al DiBrito wants to see the two cities working together more often.
“I’d like to see visiting, or attending commission meetings,” DiBrito suggested. “I’ve attended a few Benton Harbor City Commission meetings, and I’ve learned a lot at those.”
St. Joseph Mayor Pro Tem Laura Goos also referenced the harbor project Hill spoke of, and adds the cities need each other to succeed.
“The relationship is one of dependence on each community,” said Goos. “I think the importance is that as St. Joseph city commissioners and even as residents, we need to work together (with Benton Harbor) to create solutions together.”
On the ballot for November 5 in St. Joseph are:
Commissioner and Mayor Pro Tem Laura Goos
Commissioner Jeff Richards
Commissioner Lynn Todman
Al DiBrito
Shawn Hill
Susan Solon
The top three will serve on the next St. Joseph City Commission. The full candidate forum is available online as a podcast at WSJM.com, on our WSJM and Town Crier Wire apps, or wherever you consume your podcasts. The video of the forum is also available on our Facebook page.
