Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The 12th grade Marbury High School government class hosted a candidate forum at the Central Alabama Electric Auditorium Tuesday night, where the eight respective candidates running for the first ever Pine Level election had their first chance to speak to the public through local students.
“I’m very proud of the students that participated in this event, and all of their accomplishments, I think they did a phenomenal job,” Marbury High School History and Government teacher Thomas Sowell said.
There was a panel of four students that asked each candidate their questions, a moderator and even a timekeeper for Tuesday’s forum. The students asked questions regarding the candidate’s plans for tax revenue, or how candidates would advocate for the youth and recreation services in Pine Level, among other questions.
Pine Level’s democracy was at work where ballots spoke, and an answer was heard. Pine Level was voted into an incorporation to become a town in September of this year. Most candidates answered the student’s questions with the same goal for Pine Level in mind. Slow and organized growth, annexing more business to Pine Level and most all candidates agreed, getting business out to the interstate.
“I think it’s great for us students of Marbury to get together and really understand our environment and our community. I also think that the candidates running today are going to be helping us a lot in our community. We have a great support system coming behind the students and staff at Marbury High School so I just want to thank them,” Marbury High School government student Carter Deem said.
The Mayoral candidates running for the Pine Level election are Josh Register, Joy Robin Simpson and Zachary Bigley.
It’s projected that the five councilmen candidates at the forum, Greg Bixler, Mickey Cothran, Randy Hickman, Noell Moore and Austin Worcester will be the elected councilmen for Pine Level as the sixth candidate, Jeff McCollum has dropped out of the running, Autauga County Probate Judge Kim Kervin confirmed.
A live stream of the event was supposed to take place, but due to technical difficulty a video of Tuesday night’s forum will be posted to the North Prattville, Pine Level Community Facebook page. While the Facebook group is a private group, this post should be made open to the public according to one of the group admins.
