Rognstad for mayor is the best decision

After attending Tuesday night’s Sandpoint city council and mayoral candidate forum, I feel confident that the best decision a concerned citizen of Sandpoint can make is to vote for our incumbent mayor, Shelby Rongstad, for mayor and to keep Shannon Williamson, our current city council president and a very competent and well qualified leader in her own right, in her role as city council president.

Together these two leaders can move Sandpoint into the next phase of its comprehensive plan, making our town a place we can be proud to raise our children in.

Splitting the vote between these two qualified individuals risks handing the mayor’s office to a candidate who last night demonstrated plain as day that he is woefully unprepared and under-qualified to handle the responsibilities of the office of mayor. Ken Lawrence, beyond reading a couple of prepared statements of fact about the city’s water treatment plan and the comprehensive plan, demonstrated with each trip to the podium that (while he cares deeply about our community and wants what is best for Sandpoint) he is totally unprepared for the responsibilities the mayor role would require of him.

A vote for Shelby for mayor is a vote Shannon for city council president. Both these individuals are highly qualified and together they will assure continued progress and stability in our community as it enters the next phase of its growth and development.

JASON WELKER

Sandpoint