Mason City council Fourth Ward candidates discuss issues during candidate program

MASON CITY — The two candidates running for the Fourth Ward seat on the Mason City City Council sat down last night as part of a candidate program seen on northiowanow.com.

John Jaszewski has spent 20 non-consecutive years on the council, being the Fourth Ward councilman from 1994-1997, 2002-2009, and from 2018 to the present. He’s being challenged by political newcomer Rugby Sliger, a 30-year-old who works for the public works department for the City of Nora Springs.

Jaszewski says he brings a lot of perspective and enthusiasm to the table.   “I really enjoy what I’m doing, and what I enjoy most about it is when I can help people, when somebody calls and says ‘John, I’ve got this problem, what can you do for me’, and I can find a solution to the problem. That’s the most satisfying part. It’s always fun to make policy and set policy, but when you can help an individual with a problem, that to me is the best part of being a councilperson, and that’s what I bring.”

Sliger says he can bring a fresh perspective to the council.  “I think I can bring fresh ideas, new things to the council and to the city. I’m also a 30-year-old dad raising kids here, and I know what young people like me are looking for in cities and things like that. I’m just trying to move Mason City forward for young families and people who are here.”

Sliger says there’s still a lot of things the city can work on.  “I just look forward to seeing where more can happen, and I want to bring in more things for families to do here, working with developers or something like that so we can fill some of these empty buildings with family-friendly activities. They did a great thing with the bike park downtown, but that only works for eight months out of the year, we’ve got to look for stuff we can do during the winter as well.”

Jaszewski says the city has been moving in a good direction and he wants to continue doing that.  “If you look back at the last eight years, we’ve added several hundred housing units, and why would we do that? Well, if you are going to attract businesses to town, you have to have a decent place for them to live. We’ve had developers who have developed some really nice apartment buildings in and around the downtown area, and other parts of the city. That’s one of the things that has to be done if you are going to attract workers. Right now in Mason City, there are several hundred jobs looking for workers, because they are just not here.”

You can watch last night’s candidate program by clicking here