Carbondale to elect new mayor in April

CARBONDALE, Ill. (KBSI) – The city of Carbondale will soon get a newly elected mayor after the April 4 election. 

The former mayor stepped down last year. 

Now Interim Mayor Carolin Harvey looks to get elected while the opposing candidate Harold Visser, is running for his first city government position. 

Both Harvey and Visser agree that their top issue would be to address the increasing violence in Carbondale. 

“Gun violence we have received the gun violence report that was done and it has several great recommendations that the city can consider,” said Harvey.  

 “I think that what really what we need to do right now is we need to put our resources into our policing one so we can deter some of that and then also we really need to get into some of these community organizations to help some of these young men and women learn how to deal with their problems in ways the violence,” said Visser. 

Harvey says that she will also like to continue to build up housing in the area.  

“A Community Housing program and that program will help us provide housing for low to moderate-income people,” said Harvey. 

Visser would like to bring more businesses to the area.  

 “I think that really what we need to do is back off on some of our regulations of our red tape and say hey we’re open for business please come back,” said Visser.  

Early voting will be available at the Carbondale Civic Center on Friday, March 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.