With the November 3rd Election approaching, Operations Manager Paxton Gordon sat down with Jim Riewe, who is running for the open City Council Ward 3 Chair seat vacated by Brian Flanders.
Riewe, who has lived in North Platte with his wife for 17 years, talked about economic development, housing, property taxes, and tax increment financing, or TIF.
“We've just seen a lot of good growth going on the last probably five, six years, and it's a good time in my life career wise, family wise that I can help contribute some of my experience to that growth,” Riewe said.
As North Platte continues to grow and consider new businesses in the area Riewe discussed if elected how he and city officials should evaluate projects being presented and make sure if it doesn't set the city up for success that they need to head back to the drawing board.
"Just from my past experience, if you were to present something like that to somebody and sell it to somebody, you better have a good business plan, " Riewe said. "I'd be curious about what they need to be successful and then how does the city provide that, and if that's going to be a setback for the city and not a positive then you better pump the brakes and make them go back to the drawing board."
During the discussion, Riewe talked about his recent support from LEAD Nebraska Action, a leadership and candidate recruitment organization. According to LEAD Nebraska Action's page, it's an organization that is focused on training and empowering the next generation of leaders across Nebraska. Riewe did not reach out to LEAD Nebraska Action but stated that someone could have submitted his name to the page.
"So, you can actually on their website submit your name and kind of get vetted or somebody can submit your name, and they'll reach out to you," Riewe said. "In my case, somebody in our community must have submitted my name because I did not reach out to them."
Riewe was invited to Grand Island for a candidate retreat from LEAD Nebraska Action, where he and other fellow candidates around the state learned how to run a good campaign.
"There was nothing about steering anybody towards outside of your vision or outside of your platform," Riewe stated, "we just talked about what process and procedures look like to run a good campaign."
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Stay tuned to the North Platte Post for the latest election results, updates, and candidate interviews.