SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — The 2 candidates running for a seat on the Sioux City City Council took part in a candidate forum. The forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters Sioux City and the Siouxland GO.

Incumbent Julie Schoenherr and challenger Tom Murphy answered questions from a panel and the public. Some of the topics were economic growth, homelessness, infrastructure, and budget cuts. Another one was the Sioux City Wastewater Treatment Plant. Both candidates agree that this is the biggest issue for the city and they’re facing a lawsuit over the plant.

“I understand that there’s a need for the sewage treatment plant but we have to get some committees together and work with all the equities, have meetings with the actual people that are the highest users and the DNR and the actual building permits, and the plans so we can get this squared away and get this matter taken care of,” Murphy said, “It will be the biggest and the highest money amount that’s ever been done in Sioux city and that’s where I feel my construction experience would really come into play with this matter.”

“We have got to rebuild our wastewater treatment plant. We had a choice to rebuild a brand new one or rebuild the one we already have or to build a new one. And be fiscally responsible, we chose to build a new one at the site that it’s at now at a total cost of $470 million, if we were to complete phase 3,” Schoenherr said, “We are committed to fixing up to phase 2, which is a total rebuild where it’s at and phase 2 would also increase our capacity slightly, which the dnr is requiring.”

A question was asked to both candidates about how long the Lewis and Clark Park lease should be. Both Murphy and Schoenherr stated that they would support a 10-year contract.

“So their 10-year contract is coming up, so we have to take a look, we have to have a backup and see if there are others interested. Did we want to get rid of the Xs? Absolutely not. They’re doing great, they’ve had great season. We just want to see them continue to build in those stands and perhaps have more community involvement, a little more outreach to get folks to get theirselves in the seats,” Schoenherr said.

“But I think the stadium ought to be utilized more. I think a lot more high school games should be there. Bring in the out-of-town teams. You know, have more little league-type camps down there. It’s a beautiful ballpark and we need to utilize that park as much as we can. I mean, they could have, you know, Dakota Valley, come down there and have tournaments and stuff down there and have the concessions. A lot of times it sits there and I realize that the Xs, you know, used for practice and everything,” Murphy said.

The City Council election will take place on November 7th.

If you have comments, you can post a comment on the League of Women Voters Sioux City Facebook post here.

You can watch the forum above.