2020 Cullman Municipal Election Debates: Tony Townson and David Moss, Cullman City Council, place 2

0:14 uh good morning welcome back this is wc man

0:36 from the coleman tribune and we are continuing our series of 2020 municipal election debates

0:45 now we have coleman city council place 2 with incumbent david moss and challenger

0:52 tony townsend welcome gentlemen thank you thank you we are keeping things covered 19

1:00 correct here socially distancing and wearing our masks in keeping with the prescribed current regulations so all right

1:13 gentlemen let's get started uh and we'll start with our challenger tony please introduce yourself and tell

1:22 us why you're running for city council tony towson i have a business i've been operating

1:30 for 35 years quality electric i moved to coleman when i was 12 years

1:36 old attended coleman high graduated in 1973 and then went to university of montevallo

1:46 graduated in 77 and then moved back here in 78 got married my wife and i we have six children and

1:56 three grandchildren we are involved in our church locally here and just uh glad to be in coleman i've

2:08 had this business here and it's been good to me for 35 years and i'm thinking about trying

2:14 to retire next year and so coleman's been pretty good to me so i'm trying to

2:20 give back a little bit to the city that they've been good to me and

2:23 see if i can help them out any way if possible and just look forward to it i'm a

2:29 task-oriented goal-oriented person because of my business and so i think i can do the same thing

2:35 maybe with this job uh that's coming up if i get elected okay david okay good thing introduce

2:43 yourself good morning i'm coming back i'm i'm david moss jr i've been involved with the council for

2:49 two years i'm very proud of what we've accomplished not quite two years but uh 22 months i'm

2:55 proud of what we've accomplished during that time my wife mary leah moss works at wallace

3:01 she's worked there for 26 years i have a son thomas that works at ari garrison my son was

3:10 engaged a week ago about right now to nina mills nina works at the high

3:16 school and she helps coach middle school basketball i have twin daughters mary beth cleveland she got married in

3:24 june and she is a second grade teacher at west elementary and then her twin sister katie

3:32 acton was married in november and she currently lives in trussville she's an occupational therapist and her

3:40 husband's in the building supply business but i hope that someday they too will move back to coleman so my

3:46 family has deep coleman roots and i've been very fortunate to live here for

3:54 most of my life and i think of given the opportunity i could continue to serve

4:01 our community well okay now we're going to be alternating uh starting points with questions and we're

4:10 going to begin uh david after years of planning and work water from the duck river reservoir is

4:17 now flowing to the city water plant do you feel the project was handled the best it could have been

4:24 okay so i wasn't around when it started but i know in the last two years that a

4:31 lot of time has been spent um uh finishing that and getting everything um flowing i think everything i mean

4:42 nothing's ever perfect and i know there were some issues and i think they

4:45 the um people that have addressed those are do are continuing to do a good job

4:50 of following up on those but overall i'd say yes it's been a great project

4:57 same question water from duck river flowing to the city water plant and do you feel that

5:03 the project has been handled the best it could probably so i do agree with david that

5:11 there's some issues that need to be brought up and fixed and so forth but i

5:16 think looking at the future growth of the city of coleman and what's coming we definitely need the

5:23 water because uh coleman's gonna grow exponentially in the next few years and uh so i think building that

5:31 reservoir and all that was a good thing to do i think that like i said we're

5:34 gonna need the water that's for sure okay and that kind of leads into the

5:39 to the next question that we'll start with you do you think that the

5:43 project was a good choice for the city and why or why not well like i said yeah i

5:49 agree with the fact that we need the extra water because i don't remember what was it four or

5:55 five years ago lake atoma got really low and we were really concerned about

6:00 our water supply at that time and because of that i can understand why

6:06 they were getting up in arms about what we're going to do if we run out of water and so

6:12 if the city is ever going to do anything and grow you've got to have a good water supply

6:16 because people's not going to come if they feel like it's going to be rationed i lived in

6:20 abilene texas when i was a young boy and our water was rationed every summer

6:26 you could not water your lawn you could not wash your car all of those things and i just thought

6:31 it was ridiculous but that's out in the desert but here in the south you know we should have plenty of

6:37 water and so when that katoma got low i just was concerned like everybody else

6:43 so yeah i think they did a great job of getting us a new water supply

6:49 and same to you do you think the duck river project was a good choice

6:53 i think it was a great choice i remember it seems like only a couple years ago

6:58 but it was several years ago when they were still weighing their options of

7:01 what to do and like tony said you know we had that scare and i know

7:06 other other options were considered but you had some really smart people that weighed all those options and

7:14 decided that that was the best option and even with the issues that were

7:19 you know the that they're dealing with now long term this is a super project and it'll allow

7:25 coleman to grow okay and we'll come back to you with the with the next question here

7:32 reliable and sufficient broadband access downtown has been an issue that many businesses have expressed concern over

7:41 do you feel that it's a problem and if so what do you feel is the best way

7:47 to address that need reliable broadband is is a problem or an opportunity everywhere right now

7:57 and it is um it's essential if if we're going to be a thriving community in the future

8:07 what is the best way to address it i i'm not sure what if you're from a

8:13 technical standpoint what you're talking about but i know we have to invest the

8:17 resources to make sure that everywhere in our city has access to um to broadband

8:24 okay and tony same question uh do you feel that broadband access downtown is a problem

8:31 and if so what is the best way to address it well i live in the city

8:37 and let's see i guess two or three months ago i finally got a cable where i could get internet

8:47 after living there for 27 years and trying to get it and trying to get it

8:51 and trying to get it couldn't get it until a couple of months ago and my son-in-law

8:56 worked really hard to try to get me to get that and so i was glad to get it but

9:01 as far as businesses are concerned the way they're all run these days i'm assuming they all have to have

9:06 access to the internet and all the things that are going on to be able to work even

9:11 around the world with it so i think it's uh absolutely necessary with the technology today

9:17 and i'm not up on all of the technology today because i can't keep up with it fast enough but

9:25 for my business what i do i was grateful to get what i had

9:28 finally and i live in the city so yeah we need it i don't know what it's

9:34 going to cost to get here and what's available but yeah we need all we can get okay

9:43 and we will come back to you with the next question here and this has been mentioned already

9:49 coleman is growing that's a that's not the question that's a that's a given uh cohen is growing

9:57 do you believe the current utilities infrastructure will be able to handle that growth over the

10:04 next 10 to 20 years if not what needs to be done i think electrically because i had

10:15 electrical company i work with the power board a lot they've done some tremendous upgrades on

10:20 their main substation on the north end of town uh we had a brown out i don't know

10:27 five six years ago when one of those main transformers burned out and they said it was like a 1960 model

10:34 could not find parts for it and so they ended up having to replace them

10:40 and because i think the power i think should be okay as long as tva can keep it coming to

10:45 coleman we should be okay there water like you said thankfully we got the

10:51 extra lake and water supply i just hope that our water purification plant is going to be

10:58 big enough to handle the growth that's a question of mine now i know they've been

11:03 adding to it and adding to it and adding to it i don't know if it's going to handle the

11:07 actual growth that they're talking about i don't know the other thing that i'm a

11:11 little concerned about that i've talked to is the people out at the wastewater

11:16 treatment plant there's a couple of times a year they told me that they cannot handle the flow that's

11:22 coming into their plant and so that's a problem there that we need to work out

11:28 um so there's there's some areas i know that uh going to need some upgrades so we'll see

11:37 how it goes okay david same question do you think that the current utilities infrastructure will be

11:44 able to handle the growth over the next 10 to 20 years and if not what needs to be done so

11:52 as coleman has grown for the last 20 or 30 years the the um just like with the duck

11:58 rubber project i mean the steps have been taken to accommodate the growth so yeah coleman is growing and

12:06 will continue to grow and there will be needs to upgrade in every area but i think if you look at

12:12 the track record for the last several years i mean we've stayed ahead of that curve

12:18 and i think we will continue to we have to there's we've got a good group of people

12:25 pretty much in every department they're planning and thinking ahead it's not i mean the way they manage is not

12:32 looking at just the current situation everybody's thinking ahead and i think you know just like your question with

12:37 the broadband you've got to be you've got to be thinking five ten years

12:41 down the road okay and we'll come back to you with the next question here

12:47 financial accountability has been mentioned in the campaign for place two do you feel the city

12:54 council does a good job in that regard as it relates to utilities why or

13:00 why not as it relates specifically to utilities i think the city council does a a very

13:07 good job uh across the board with the with financial accountability and if you look at um the f financial

13:14 strength of our city right now the decisions that have been made including utilities you know i think

13:23 they've been very conservative but also very forward thinking at the same time so i think yes

13:29 they do a very good job we do a very good job okay do you feel the city council does a good

13:37 job in the issue of financial accountability as it relates to utilities well obviously david knows a lot more

13:45 about that than i do because he's there and he sees where he goes

13:48 i don't know to be honest with you i just see some of the expenditures that

13:53 is going on in the city of coleman at first i thought was really a big

13:58 mistake and then i realized some of these things they've been buying has been really beneficial

14:04 and i know it has nothing to do with utilities but i am thankful that the

14:07 city of coleman bought the road paving equipment because that has been needed greatly

14:12 but as far as utilities are concerned i just don't know because i've never

14:17 been in a city council meeting so i don't know what they do all right and we will come back to you

14:25 with the next question here what are your thoughts on solar power i think solar power is greatly underused

14:39 it needs to be done in tremendous ways because the benefits of it is just tremendous

14:47 i've been involved in wiring quite a few little solar jobs for houses and so forth

14:55 but i think as i see uh the awful building up here on the north

15:00 end of town it's got that huge solar array and the um the heritage i think it's

15:06 heritage funeral home out there on eva road they got that huge solar array

15:10 that's i'm glad to see it i think it's it needs to be really

15:14 brought up and we really need to get involved in it greatly i think the

15:18 main city buildings in coleman could benefit from it if they just put it on

15:22 their flat rooftops and they could power a lot of the buildings in the city of coleman

15:28 i think it's great i think we need to do it every way in any way we can

15:32 okay and to you uh what are your thoughts on solar power solar power obviously

15:40 is is one of the power sources of choice for the future uh it is exciting to see some places in

15:49 coleman um already moving that direction obviously it has to make sense from a cost

15:55 standpoint and i don't i don't know when you hit that point where it where it is the preferable

16:02 source um but yeah i think it's a something we ought to be certainly aware

16:08 of and investigating and possibly investing in for future use okay and this next question that will

16:17 come to you first david that's not specific to utilities but it has been a

16:23 kind of an across-the-board question in council business do you think that the city does enough

16:36 to fund coleman city schools that's it that's a question i was hoping you would bring up so

16:44 there obviously the school system of coleman is is one of the the main pillars of our

16:54 success i mean if you look at the industrial recruitment we've done the uh just when

17:01 people choose to move to coleman one of the things they look at is the school system and we have an

17:06 outstanding school system you have there's a perception a perception that the city council

17:16 is not pro schools i've heard this out there and it's just not the case you have the most pro-education

17:23 council in place right now if you look at coach page son's principal at west

17:29 myself my daughter teaches my wife teaches you know dr folsom um started out as a

17:35 teacher at west point ended up at wallace so it the the city council

17:40 is very pro-education and very willing to do what uh what we can to keep our city schools at the at the

17:50 level they need to be does there need to be a little more cooperation between the school board and

17:55 communication with uh possibly but we're very aware that there are some challenges for the

18:02 schools as far as infrastructure and buildings that need to be addressed and we're more than willing to be part

18:08 of that discussion and the same question to you do you think the city does enough to fund

18:15 coleman city schools well i look at the cullen high school and how they built that

18:22 nice new building up there that's supposed to be hopefully tornado proof and so forth and i

18:28 agree with that wholeheartedly i do know that coleman right now has got probably um

18:37 land invested into new houses for about 500 new houses if that's the case then i'm assuming

18:43 we're going to have somewhere around 700 750 new students come in in the next

18:49 year or two so we definitely need to be doing something about the schools because when they

18:54 built the new building at the high school it's great but they didn't add any more

18:58 classrooms or any more area for teaching all they did was just use the same amount of

19:05 area that made it tornado proof and i'm grateful for that but at the same time we're going to have

19:12 a lot of students coming in here in the next couple of years and we definitely need to be prepared

19:16 for it and i don't think we are i don't know what the city council does

19:21 as far as how much they provide for the school system but i know we definitely

19:26 need to be thinking about it tremendously because it's coming whether we want it to or not

19:33 okay and then we will begin with you to close this out and take up to

19:43 three minutes to tell the citizens of coleman anything else you'd like to share the

19:50 floor is open well my idea is it's a small town and most of the people that live here

19:58 like it that way and they want to keep it that way and i understand they're thinking about

20:04 it however because it is such a good town there's going to be a lot of people

20:09 wanting to move here and with the uh additional industry coming in up there in madison and

20:15 surrounding areas there's going to be a lot of industries that want to try to

20:18 come here the thing is how do you balance keeping coleman that sweet small town

20:25 that everybody knows their neighbor and you feel like it's safe to walk the

20:30 streets of coleman day or night and keep it that way even with all this growth

20:36 that's going to be the the clincher as to how we handle that and

20:41 uh as far as the utilities are concerned like i've said i'm hoping that we have enough to

20:48 handle everything that comes our way with the growth that's coming um i want to make sure that we're ahead

20:55 of the game before it gets here because i don't want anything to be

21:00 canceled or whatever because we're not able to function because we can't give them what they need

21:05 so i hope coleman thinks ahead and looks forward to that time but yet at

21:10 the same time keep it the town that we have it's a town of churches we're able to

21:16 worship freely and nobody's ridiculed or even persecuted for being here for that matter

21:22 to go to church so i want to keep it that way but i know that we're going to have a

21:27 challenge of some major growth and so we got to keep that in mind

21:31 okay and david you get to close us out tell the citizens of coleman anything

21:37 else you'd like to share the floor is open to you okay so again i'm i'm david moss jr and

21:41 i'm asking for your vote for city council place 2 on august 25th i'm very proud of the 22 months

21:50 that what we've accomplished since i've been on the city council i felt like

21:55 the way i joined and the opportunity to join i was joining a winning team it

21:59 wasn't like uh you know i was going into a situation where we needed to change a lot of things i

22:07 feel like our community has a lot of momentum a lot of positive energy

22:13 a lot to be thankful for uh previous leaders previous mayors going back you know many

22:19 mayors pretty previous councils all all the people that have led the city and got us to where we are we're very

22:27 thankful for i feel like the biggest thing we need to do is keep that

22:33 momentum going and one of one of my big concerns uh for the next four years is is the

22:39 impact of the the covet virus and what is that going to do to our

22:44 to our small businesses to our uh restaurants to our the activities that the community

22:50 activities that we've been enjoying the second fridays the oktoberfest those those things the the

22:56 coleman high school baseball games that so well attended all these things are you know hopefully these are short-term

23:02 um a blip in our in our lives but but perhaps they're not so i hope that

23:09 uh with the experience that our council has now and and i feel like i'm well qualified

23:15 to help lead us through these challenges for the next four years and i would

23:19 appreciate your vote on august 25th thank you all right that's it gentlemen thank you thank you