Two experienced candidates running for Clear Lake City Council at-large seat

CLEAR LAKE — The race for Clear Lake’s at-large City Council seat on the ballot features two experienced councilmen. Dana Brant served on the council representing the First Ward from 2012 to 2016 and has served in the at-large seat he currently occupies since 2018. Tony Nelson served two terms on the council representing the Second Ward between 2010 and 2018.

Brant says he’s enjoyed his time on the council and wants to serve the community for another four years.  “This has just been a pleasure to sit up here for me, I’ve enjoyed it. When I got on many years ago, the first four years that I was on, I really had no idea what I got myself into or what I agreed to, and was given the opportunity to make some hard decisions the first couple of years, and I was like, yeah I get it, this isn’t the funnest thing. As I’ve been up here, my second term and now my third term, I really don’t want to go away just yet, because this is a great little town.”

Brant says the city is in a good financial position to work on numerous projects and ideas in the near future. “Being debt free as a community gives us the opportunity to do infrastructure, try to create incentives for affordable housing, to help the Surf, to do all these things, and all I can say is, wow. We live in a community that we should go to bed each night and be thankful for where we live. Our police department, our fire station, the volunteers. We don’t have a problem getting volunteers because people love to volunteer and work here and live here.”

Nelson says a large community issue is affordability in housing as well as taxes.  “It seems like we’ve gotten a little out of synch with that just in general, and there’s just a lot of stuff that has needs. So when it comes down to infrastructure and city projects, and all these things that are important to everyone, I literally believe we need to look at those carefully and be fiscally responsible. Coming down to the main issue, we need to look at taxes and make our community a little more affordable, and that relates to housing especially with a lot of folks just can’t afford to live here anymore, and that’s a huge issue. That’s my primary concern that I think that I’ve heard from the constituents in Clear Lake.”

Nelson says Clear Lake needs to be a good steward of tax dollars.  “If I have the privilege of being elected again, I would demonstrate my leadership and experience by lowering our tax levy, identify budget opportunities where we can reduce spending, recognize critical infrastructure improvements and specifically plan or find the money to fund those, partner with others to attract, plan, and create reasonable long-term housing and collaborate with local businesses to expand or bring in new job opportunities to Clear Lake.”

The candidates made their comments during a candidate forum sponsored by the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and Northiowanow.com News earlier this month. You can watch that forum by clicking on this link.