ANNIKA WALL, MANAGING EDITOR
Current Mayor Dean Soash and mayor hopeful Adam Hoffman are running for the Waverly Mayor. Elections will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Students that reside in the Waverly Manors, Afton Manors or Knights Village will vote at Bartel’s Retirement Community, while students that live in the other residence halls will vote at the Waverly Fire Department.
Why are you running for mayor?
Dean Soash: The answer I give in jest is that I haven’t received enough abuse yet, but realistically I’m running because there is still unfinished business to do with the city. Listen to the people and be a liason, so to speak, between the city staff and the citizens of Waverly.
Adam Hoffman: I think there’s a lot of things that we can improve on in our community, making sure that we look at all avenues of listening to people and representing them to the best of our ability.
What do you want to accomplish your next two years if you were elected?
DS: Continue work with the youth ball diamond project that is currently underway. Begin conversations on the green bridge, Third Street Bridge. It’ll always be green, regardless of what color it is. But, most importantly, I think I have a connection with the citizens, the majority of the citizens, that I can continue to grow and develop. I maintain office hours at city hall and my phone number and email addresses are very public so that they can get a hold of me.
AH: I think the biggest things that we can accomplish is finishing some of the tasks that have been on the backburner for a long time. I think the green bridge [Third Street Bridge] is one of the big ones. It’s a big hit. Getting the ball fields off to a successful start for the youth and, again, listening to our constituency.
In your opinion, what should be done with the green bridge?
DS: I was on the original task force in 2002 or 2003 that recommended a replacement of that bridge. Due to some circumstances, that didn’t happen. There was an effort at one time to set aside funds for repair of the bridge before it got in the condition its in. I’ve always maintained that it was put in as a neighborhood bridge and it still needs to be a neighborhood bridge, obviously updated and I think in the upcoming budget for 2020-21, we will begin talks on trying to fund engineering so that we can move down the road and get that reconstructed.
AH: I think we need to have a replacement there, especially when we have the Bremer Avenue bridge going to be taken out in a couple years to be replaced, so we need another avenue for emergency services and general traffic.
What should be done with Bremer Avenue?
DS: Bremer Avenue is going to remain as it is until the traffic study is done in the Spring of 2020. We don’t expect to get the results until mid-year and, depending on the results of that study, what happens. Based on what I see now, I’m not sure anything will change.
AH: Back in 2016 we had a resolution that said we needed to wait until the Cedar River Parkway was open and we had the traffic study from the coming Spring. Once we have that, we can revisit it and see if it warrants a change. If it doesn’t warrant a change, then we’ll leave it as three lanes.
What do you feel sets you apart in terms of leadership?
DS: I’ve dealt with the public one-on-one for almost 60 years. I’m a retired electrician, had a 57year career and that where I dealt one-on-one and I think that’s my strength.
AH: I think a lot of the leadership skills I have developed in my career history in law enforcement where you are making very important decisions, oftentimes that people aren’t going to like, but you have to make a decision with reason, but also have time to listen to them to come up with that decision
Knight Wire 
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