Madison challenges Freeman for at-large council seat

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of profiles this week on candidates in the Tuesday, Nov. 7, city elections. See Thursday’s Creston News Advertiser for the final set of candidate profiles.

Terry Freeman

AGE: "I'm 45, but I will be 46 come election day."

WORK HISTORY: "Currently I am an advertising account representative with KSIB Radio. I worked for the Creston News Advertiser for about seven years doing the same thing. I worked for the phone company in Des Moines for about 10 years in between all that."

HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU SERVED ON CITY COUNCIL?

“Not quite a year. I was appointed to the council in December of ‘16 to fill the vacancy left by Christine Nielsen when she left. Like I said, I have been serving ever since.”

WHY DO YOU WANT TO REMAIN ON CITY COUNCIL?

“Well, I like the vision of the mayor in terms of his goal of unifying and making Creston relevant. As I said when I was applying for that job, is I want to make Creston a destination community where people want to come live, work and play. What we can do, I think our Park and Rec department, I think they’ve done a wonderful job with the parks. I like the idea with the council we’ve got the street improvements going on. We are slowly, but surely making headway on some of our nuisance properties so those are things I kind of want to keep pushing and helping make Creston that destination community.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR TOP PRIORITY FOR YOUR NEXT TERM?

“Just continuing Creston improvement. I still think we have a long way to go with our roads, our infrastructure is holding up but those are things I think we’re going to need to address and continue to improve.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU BRING TO THE POSITION THAT SOMEBODY ELSE CAN'T?

“Well, that’s a good question. I guess being a Creston resident, lifelong community member, I guess I feel like I’m bringing that dedication, desire to improve where I live, work, play and shop. I don’t know if that is any better than anybody else could do it, but you know, I’ve felt like the last year I’ve learned a lot about how city government works.”

Josh Madison

AGE: 26

WORK HISTORY: "I am the branch manager at Nishna Valley Credit Union here in town."

WHY DO YOU WANT TO JOIN ON CITY COUNCIL?

"This is my hometown. I was born and raised here and I just want to do my part and do what I can do best to help make this town better than what it is."

WHAT WOULD YOUR TOP PRIORITY BE FOR NEXT TERM?

"My biggest ones would be cleaning up this town, getting people to clean up the properties and stuff. The second one would be streets, just continuing with what they've been doing to make sure we get all the streets fixed up. I guess one of them would be getting more people interested in city matters and what actually goes on in the city."

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU BRING TO THE POSITION THAT SOMEONE ELSE CAN’T

"I think I'm a little bit younger than most people running so I could bring a little bit of youth and some fresh ideas that they may not have."