Holly Cipriani

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Q. What are your campaign plans for this fall?

A. I am already in the process of starting some door-to-door campaigning. I’m visiting residents all around Bowling Green because I’m running for an at-large seat. I’m taking the time to get to know them at the door and drop off some materials so they can get to know me better.

I plan on visiting student organizations and hearing from them on what they hope to see from their local government and share a little bit about myself.

I’ll probably be having some listening events coming up; I believe in being accessible to the citizens and to the public, and so one thing I’d like to do as a council member is host periodic public forums where I have a chance to sit down and talk to anybody who wants to come out. During my primary, I had Coffee with the Candidate at Sydney Coffee.

I want to connect with Undergraduate Student Government; that is an organization I spoke with during the primaries. I’m also hoping to meet with the Black Student Union, Latino Student Union, LGBTQ groups that are on campus, College Democrats. If able, I’d like to reach out to Greek Life.

What policy ideas and projects do you have in mind if you become a city council member?

Looking at our local economic development growth. I want to go and get to know our downtown businesses and what works well for them and where they are finding struggles.

And then finding ways to potentially partner with the university to even do a small research study on where there are other small towns similar to Bowling Green that are experiencing either the same struggles or are doing well so we can try and mirror those ideas on how to bring growth into our local economy and support our businesses.

Looking into housing in Bowling Green too.  The properties are either not being well maintained.

Q. What distinguishes you from your opponents?

A. I have a master’s in Public Administration from BGSU and I focus on local economic development and leadership, but I also have experienced BG as, not just as a community member but also as a student.

I have a very strong background in the non-profit world, and I think that social service side of me would really set me apart from the other candidates. I whole heartedly believe in servant leadership, and I believe our public officials should be our public servants. They’re for the community.

Nathan Eberly

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Q. Why are you running as an independent and how does that sculpt your campaign?

A. I was a former libertarian party member and libertarian chairman locally, but I am now an unaffiliated independent candidate.

I’m trying to rise above partisan politics.

I’ve jumped between both the Democratic and Republican party, and I’ve been heavily involved with the libertarian party for many years, but for me, when I’m looking at city politics and city government, I think we should be non-partisan. We should not have strict political platforms. Local level is very different from state or federal politics.

What are your campaign plans for this fall?

I’m looking for any opportunity to be on campus this fall. To be present for any groups that may allow me to speak to them.

I’m there on campus every Wednesday morning for a morning radio show, WBGU, so I’ve tried to utilize that as a great opportunity to stay on campus, and really network with college students that are also residents of Bowling Green and voters of Bowling Green. And let them know about the importance of BGSU to Bowling Green, the community and how important it is that we have a great relationship between students, the school, the administration, the city and all the residents.

These are great positive opportunities for our city to be highlighted. So it’s very important to have a strong presence on campus and be as vocal as possible before, during and after the campaign.

Q. How do you connect and fit in with the BG community?

A. I moved here in 2003, I have since married a townie and pretty much cemented myself and my family in this town. I love it here, I love the small town feel, and we’re very close to all the amenities one could want.

Working wise, I am a financial representative with Modern Woodmen Fraternal Financial here in Bowling Green, I have an office here in Bowling Green. I wanted to establish myself here in town opposed to where I was working in Maumee, because I care about my town. I want to be able to care for Bowling Green Clients, my family here and the surrounding neighborhoods to try and build a community.

It’s really the civic engagement from my work that really pushed me even further back into politics and running for city council. I want to be a positive financial mind on city council, and I think that is something that is important for all tax payers and all residents of Bowling Green to have as a representative on council. Somebody that has a deep appreciation and understanding of governmental funding, governmental accounting, governmental budgeting processes, general finance and to be a good steward for all of Bowling Green.

Q. As a member, what do you hope to bring to the council and what improvements do you wish to make?

A. I wish to bring whatever Bowling Green residents wish me to bring is number 1. As an at large I’m a representative for all Bowling Green city residents. It’s up to me to understand what everybody outward is thinking and is concerned with, and to address those concerns.

For me, it’s to expand upon economic development. We have a great Bowling Green economic development foundation. We need to make sure we are treating each business fairly and not just concentrating on the biggest employers or with the biggest check books, but emphasize care for even smaller employers and smaller businesses in town to assure that everyone in the business community is treated fairly and has equal opportunity for success. Making sure the resources are there for the community to really assist our business owners and small businesses.

Beverly Elwazani

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Q. With your long-time connection with Bowling Green, how do you think that helps you to be a better candidate for the city council?

A. Some of my opponents are either younger, so they haven’t been able to live and be active here as long, or they are transplants. I think having living here for close to 30 years now I’ve been able to see Bowling Green change and grow, and allows me to have a feel for how things go in the city from day-to-day.

 I know so many people. I sometimes run into people I don’t even know but I recognize them and they recognize me and we have conversations. And it gives me a sense of the ebb and flow of what happens in Bowling Green.

Q. With the city council’s past term, what did you notice that didn’t go well that if you become a member you could improve upon?

A. I think there’s a big need to keep young people here and to keep graduates here. What I see in my own adult children and their friends who live in other cities, I see them really pushing towards taking care of the environment. When I see my kids going out of the way to recycle and compost, I think if we had a real push for that where Bowling Green was known to be green that we might be able to maintain and retain some of our young people before they decide to move on. Then we might be able to drive some other businesses in. A lot of businesses are looking for ways to find their niche and being green might be the way to do that.

Q. What are your campaign plans for this fall? What will BGSU students and residents see from you?

A. We’re definitely going to try and do a door-to-door city wide campaign. If there home when I’m there, they’re going to see my face and I’ll have a flier for them.

One of the things I’ve tried to improve is the town and gown relationship, and I think people are kind of short changing the students to what they are capable of doing if they are approached in the right manner. So hopefully I’ll be able to meet and great several of the students on a one to one basis.

The fact that the Green Party stands for social justice, women’s rights, and the rights of minorities are very important to me. And it’s really important to take care of our environment because we’ve only got this planet.

Carolyn Kawecka

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Q. Why do you want to be a member of the BG City Council, and why the Green Party?

A. I’ve been talking with a lot of people who are not always Green Party members who are unhappy with what is actually getting done on city council.

People who are Democrat or Republican are always being held back by the people in their party who are telling them what to do or not to do, or what to say and not to say. Whereas in the Green Party you feel long as long as you’re not violating the key principles of the party, we’re not going to tell you what to say and not say. Go ahead and do what you believe is the right thing.

The gender discrepancy, and the need to actually make positive changes I’m just not seeing happening.

Q. If you become a member of the city council, what will be your major objectives and goals?

A. Instead of trying to cut the budget by short-term solutions, we need to be thinking of the budget in long-term solutions, and moving towards recycling everything instead of cutting recycling and then having a cost increase from landfill costs.

We have wind turbines in our municipality and we have solar panels in our municipality; that’s wonderful.

We could use more stuff like that because there is no way our energy bills should be going up like they are now. We have alternative energy in place, but it, was “more lucrative” to sell the energy to somebody else, well why don’t you reduce our bills? The thinking on the current council doesn’t seem to be thinking of the citizens. It seems like they don’t really pay attention, and it seems like they don’t ask questions and do the things they could be doing with the power that they have that could help everybody.

What makes you a prominent and active member in the BG Community?

I’ve been a resident of Wood County for a long time. I was always intrigued by the French house in Bowling Green when it was active.

The six years that I’ve been here in Bowling Green have allowed me to really appreciate Bowling Green as one of the cities that is still functioning with several downtown businesses.

One thing that I really don’t think is being pushed enough on the tourist attraction front is, there are people who will come and take a look at the wind turbines and we should push them more. They could come and see the turbines and solar panels and that could bring more money into Bowling Green. I think people are becoming more intrigued by them because most towns do not have wind turbines and solar panels.

Q. What can BGSU Students and BG students alike expect to see from you on the campaign this fall?

A. We’re trying to raise awareness on who and what the Green Party is, because there are still a lot of people who have not even heard of its existence even with the prominence of Jill Stein. There are still people who do not know what the Green Party is, what it stands for, know about the key principles such as social justice and grass-roots democracy. So we’re trying to let people know that we exist, we’re in BG, and that this is what we stand for.

We passed out fliers at the Wood County Fair, we’re going to have a Meet the Green Party Candidates night (Thursday, September 14, 7 PM at the Wood County Library, 251 North Main St, BG). We’ve been passing out fliers door to door.

And with the whole issue of health care, an event will be held in which we want to emphasize how the Green Party has always been in favor of single-payer, universal health-care and Obama Care was never far enough along (Why We Need Socialized Medicine; Sunday, September 17, 7 PM, Grounds for Thought, 174 South Main St, BG).

Sandy Rowland

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Q. What are your campaign plans for this fall? What should BGSU students expect to see?

A. I hope Bowling Green State University Students will become involved in our city. There are many things here for them to enjoy. We have a wonderful parks and rec system, a wonderful little down town, great restaurants. I want them to be a part of our city and feel some ownership and that is very important to me.

As far as the students go, my message to them will be, we want this city to be home for you. A place where you feel you want to return here proud and that you’ll always have the best of memories about Bowling Green.

We will have yards signs out, we will be going door-to-door to meet with residents and I will be making myself available to speak with any group or organization that’s available. I do want to meet as many people from Bowling Green that I possibly can.

Q. What projects and policy ideas do you hope to advance as a city councilwoman?

A. We have a huge undertaking in the recreation of our east Wooster Street corridor to the university and our city. We will start late in 2017 working with the State Department of Highways to construct roundabouts to repave the entire street and to build a new bridge across I-75 to make it more welcoming to people visiting our city and more pleasurable to look at. We’re going to repave the sidewalks to make them wider for bikes as well.

Q. What distinguishes you from your opponents?

A. I’m the only person that is returning to office and that has completed a full term. I have six years of experience I know the plans for the near future in our community and I can hit the road running in 2018. I don’t have to catch up or learn anything new about council operations.

What were your biggest accomplishments during your last term?

We’ve been able to hold off the nexus pipeline from running through property owned in Bowling Green. They wanted to use some Bowling Green property and we were able to stave that off and hold them back from receiving approval to build across the Maumee river.

Our biggest accomplishment in my mind is that we developed a future land use plan which laid out our community for maybe the next twenty years and we’ll use properties in our community, and part of that was to recreate the east side, and working to regain our neighborhoods on the east side of town.

What makes you relatable to the BG community?

I’m out there. I make it my business to know what’s going on on-campus and interact with students, professors, and staff. I’ve been a long time resident and I’m a people person.

Greg Robinette

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Unfortunately, Robinette could not be reached for comment.

Greg Robinette has been a long time resident of Bowling Green, living here with his wife and family for over 22 years.

He has served on the City Council before in 2011, but had to resign his seat after he was deployed to the Middle East as the commander of the 371st Sustainment Brigade, Ohio Army National Guard.

Robinette actively served in The National Guard for 32 years, and has a Law Degree from Toledo University.