Candidates in the upcoming municipal election gathered on Thursday evening for a Meet the Candidates event at the Warren County Courthouse.

The event was an opportunity for candidates to speak about their platforms and respond to questions from the public.

Candidates in attendance were Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr.; mayoral candidates Willis Thompson and Kasman Massey; Ward 2 Alderman Alex Monsour; and Ward 2 challenger Vickie Bailey.

Questions from the audience were written on index cards and passed through moderators before being presented to the candidates.

One audience member asked the mayoral candidates what they thought was the biggest challenge facing the city and what they would do to address it.

In his answer, Flaggs spoke about how he has been addressing blight in the community.

“I’ve already given money to organizations to help with the blights and I think they’re doing a good job with it. It just takes so long to get things through and get the inspection code and some other things. But the other part of the question is that I’m here to help any way I can,” he said. “I’ve been in Washington 19 times. I’ve got a flight in two weeks to the White House. I’m working on grants. I’ve gotten $66 million for this community in 12 years. That’s what I’ve done.”

Massey said the biggest issue facing the community is crime.

“It erodes the sense of community trust that we all operate in. And we have got to take a stronger stance. We’ve got to reinforce our police department,” she said. “We’ve got to look at alternative ways in dealing with repeat offenders. We need to be looking at our Judges and our DAs who let these people back out on the street to do harm to the people here that just want to exist peacefully and live lives the way we’re meant to.”

Thompson pointed to a lack of opportunities as a major issue that needs to be addressed.

“You live in a city where 28% of the people live below the poverty level. So if you have that kind of poverty in the community, of course, you’re going to have crime, you’re going to see blight. You’re going to see the things that we have trouble overcoming,” he said. “There’s a problem when our children go through high school and immediately want to leave and go other places. We need things here to keep them here. And we need to invest in the business community. We need to open up opportunities. We need to help entrepreneurs.”

Another audience member asked the candidates what they would do to address the problem of homelessness in the community.

Bailey responded by speaking about what needs to happen in order to prevent homelessness.

“You won’t believe the amount of people that are at the verge of being homeless. You have police officers, nurses, your average person making median income right here now are at the verge of homelessness. The jobs are here, yes, but the median income of Vicksburg, I want to say is forty-something thousand dollars,” she said. “But with the housing that we have here, we don’t have the housing market. We need some investors and developers that will come in and make affordable housing. Now, you’ve got people commuting into the city of Vicksburg and they’re going out. We don’t have that tax base, but they’re coming in, they’re working and taking those dollars out. We need to capitalize on those buyers to make them want to stay here.”

Another question asked the candidates what they would do to improve the area of Highway 61 South.

Monsour said that, currently, the city is attracting a large amount of investment from businesses that will help improve the area.

“Well, for the last four and a half years, we’ve been working on something,” he said. “If you’ve got some property down there, you better get ready because we’ve attracted some business down there. We’re not allowed to say what it is right now, but I’m telling you it’s coming…You got two industries right now looking at the south end of town. I’ve been chomping at the bit. I wish that they could say it before the election so you would know. But you will be in total awe of the money that is coming to Vicksburg, Mississippi and the jobs with it. I promise you. 61 South is coming.”

The event was sponsored by the Vicksburg Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the First Mississippi Chapter of Blacks in Government, the Vicksburg Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Vicksburg Voter Initiative for the Medgar and Angela Scott Foundation, the Mu Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and the Omicron Rho Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.