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Mike Wolanin | The RepublicJohn Foster, second right, moderates a forum between Democrat candidates for Columbus City Council District 3 Jerone Wood, left, Michael Kinder, second left, and Tony Hayden, far right, during a Columbus Rotary Club meeting at Donner Center in Columbus, Ind., Monday, March 27, 2023.

COLUMBUS, Ind. The three Democratic candidates for Columbus City Council District 3 met in a candidate forum hosted by the Columbus Rotary Club Monday to talk about city projects and plans for the future.

The forum, featuring Democrats Tony Hayden, Michael Kinder and Councilman Jerone Wood, occurred with just about a week left until in-person absentee voting begins for the May 2 city primary.

The winner will face Republican candidate Sue Norman-Chapple in the November general election. Norman-Chapple is running unopposed in the GOP primary.

The three Democratic candidates discussed a variety of topics at Mondays forum, including city projects.

Lot of new projects underway that will soon require funding when the new council takes office, said moderator John Foster. Are you committed to continuing these projects? Are there ones you would like to see discontinued?

Wood replied that hes a strong believer in current projects, including NexusPark.

Im also a big backer of the riverfront project, he said. I really think that could do great things for our city as well, stuff like that. I know thats one project we dont talk about too much. I know it was hot for a while, but I think that thats something that, if we put our funding and our energy behind, along with NexusPark, thats going to put us in a really great direction as a city.

Kinder also expressed support for the two projects.

I think those big projects are what we need to focus on in the next seven years, he said. We have Envision Columbus, again, another great thing that went through with the community, and to focus on those projects and making sure that they are still mapped and aligned with the new world were in now, post pandemic.

Hayden said that he has some questions about NexusPark and other projects, though he is generally supportive of anything that benefits the city. He is in favor of the riverfront project, though he noted that the initiative has been slow moving.

Hes also passionate about transparency and accountability for city projects, including how they will be paid for.

And also being accountable to the citizens, because a lot of people I walk around and talk to, theyre very, still, confused about NexusPark and the need for it, said Hayden. So I just want to have the answers for them and explain the benefits for NexusPark. I like the current projects that were working on, and I cant wait, hopefully Im on the council to see some future projects in Columbus.

For the complete story and more photos, see Tuesdays Republic.

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The three Democratic candidates for District 3 council talk about the ... - The Republic