Callaway Western District commissioner's race features Moore vs. Fischer

Steve Moore (photo at left) is the Democrat candidate for Western District Commissioner on the Nov. 8 ballot in Callaway County. Roger Fischer (right) is the Republican candidate for the office.
Steve Moore (photo at left) is the Democrat candidate for Western District Commissioner on the Nov. 8 ballot in Callaway County. Roger Fischer (right) is the Republican candidate for the office.

Two candidates -- Roger Fischer and Steve Moore -- are competing to fill the Western District commissioner's position on the Nov. 8 ballot in Callaway County.

STEVE MOORE

Steve Moore is the Democratic candidate for Callaway County Western District commissioner.

Moore was born and raised in Callaway County. In 1984, he ran for Fulton City Council to address an issue with sidewalks. He's been there ever since and has also served as deputy mayor. He is on the resolution committee for the Missouri Municipal League. As part of the committee, Moore was involved in hiring current City Administrator Bill Johnson. A transplanted kidney recipient, he's on the board of the Missouri Kidney Program. Moore is a member at St. James United Methodist Church, where he's attended for 20 years.

Q. How does your experience prepare you for being an effective Callaway County commissioner?

A. "You don't have to train me on the job, because I believe my 32 years of experience on the council puts me in the position to be up and running pretty quick. I'll have to learn some county policies, but I've been studying that.

"As for the economic development, I think that I've been current in it, not like my opponent who says, 'I've worked in it.'

"I have the resources and know the people that can help further our cause in trying to get industry in our community. You hear them mention they give to the Chamber of Commerce, but if you're really looking to develop your community, you have to eat and sleep the thought of economic development. You can say 'I give money,' but you've got to be active."

Q. What is the biggest problem facing Callaway County, and how would you resolve it?

A. "The voters and the citizens of Callaway County have always been nice. Back throughout history, when the county needed help or needed to be bailed out, the taxpayers have been happy to have improvement taxes. (Now), the county has a surplus. It's time, I think, the county should pay back the citizens for what they've done to keep them solvent.

"We should have a five-year plan on roads and bridges so when a citizen comes in, we can say 'Yes, we know we have a need there. In 2018, we plan on coming and doing that in your area, just be patient with it.'

"One of my other things is that we have over 800 miles to patrol. We have heard the discussion over hiring good officers. We have to maybe make a pay raise adjustment to get three or four more officers. When you need one, you want one. I believe that there's no one in the county that would be against us hiring officers."

Q. How do you intend to keep an open line of communication with your constituents?

A. "The commissioners said they have tried this before, but I'm one of those hard-headed people. Everyone knows that we have City Council meetings. You know it starts at 6:30, so you can come and talk.

"(Perhaps) we can take one night out of the month and say, you can come to the courthouse and talk to your commissioners and ask what's going on in the county. I believe in that communication with the citizens and with the cities. We can have a major focus on how we're building the county."

Q. Callaway County has obvious defects in infrastructure - case in point, last summer's flooding. How can the county better prepare for disasters?

A. "That's a hard one, because that was private property (speaking of a private dam). But I do believe that over the years you might have been checking it to forewarn them. Everything's private and individual, (but) sometimes the government has to step in and say, 'Hey, you maybe want to take a look at that, because we see there's some erosion happening, you might want to fix that.'

"Not that any taxpayer money was going to go toward fixing it, but it doesn't hurt to warn your constituents of what's coming up. We're probably more specialized in the field than what they are."

Q. What makes Callaway County great?

A. "Its traditions, heritage and history. Callaway has a lot of history. Name me what little town in Missouri can claim to have had five presidents visit it - because Jefferson Davis came through in the Civil War, and the house where he visited still stands today on Hockaday Hill. And then you have the Churchill Memorial, which gets almost 30,000 visitors a year.

"There is a real importance to promoting your traditions and heritage in your community, and I think that most people that ever come here can say that most Callawegians are very friendly. They'll talk to you; they're outgoing. I think the pride we take in our heritage in Callaway County is probably the best thing we have going for us."

ROGER FISCHER

Roger Fischer is the Republican candidate for Callaway County Western District commissioner.

Fischer was born in 1959 at the Fulton Memorial Hospital and is a fourth-generation Callaway resident. He married his high school classmate Janet (nee Cassmeyer) 32 years ago. The couple has two sons and three grandchildren. His sons returned to Fulton after attending college in Springfield. Fischer spent 20 years as a mining and mineral consultant and equipment supplier. He owns Spectrum 2000 LLC, a business that repairs interactive games, as well as a rental complex and two storage facilities. Fischer is an active member of Central Christian Church and also attends St. Peter's Catholic Church.

Q. How does your experience prepare you for being an effective Callaway County commissioner?

A. "I have over 30 years of business experience, and I bring a lot of new contacts. I know a lot of people from the eastern part of the state, along the Missouri River, and I know a lot of people in mining and agriculture.

"I'll identify the sources of income so we can be more efficient and effective with sources without raising taxes.

"I worked with the Missouri Economic Development High-Tech Innovation Center. I helped manage small companies throughout the state, including all the financial, and all aspects of working with the employees, and many different types of businesses. I can take the same type of management techniques that have proven successful in the past and see how they can be incorporated into how the commissioner's office operates.

"I'll manage the call flow from the customers about roads and bridges and other county needs so that we can respond to individual requests and complaints in a more efficient manner."

Q. What is the biggest problem facing Callaway County, and how would you resolve it?

A. "Let me kinda of set up the scenario. We have the Clean Water Commission; we've got Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency all looking at Callaway County. They're trying to figure out how to get all counties in Missouri in compliance. We're one of two trial counties, and we have to figure out how we're going to deal with our sewage runoff and how it affects the streams. All of the present options are too expensive to implement.

"Sewage treatment and the disposal of human waste is probably the biggest problem in the Western District.

"Until I've personally spent the time with the DNR and EPA and understand what they want the Clean Water Commission (to do), it's hard for me to (give a solution), although I do have a lot of contacts who've been in the sewage/water treatment business that we can call on to come up with some creative ideas to help us comply without going to some of the extremes that they've proposed."

Q. How do you intend to keep an open line of communication with your constituents?

A. "It'll be the first door inside the commissioner's office on the left, and it'll always be open to constituents. My phone number is on all the literature I've printed, and my website and my personal emails. I will be active in events and in organizations as we work together to improve the quality of life and job opportunities in Callaway County.

"I want to work with young farmers. Callaway County is known for mining and agriculture, and I want to work with new and small farms with new techniques that we can utilize to make our farms more efficient as an income source for young families."

Q. Callaway County has obvious defects in infrastructure - case in point, last summer's flooding. How can the county better prepare for disasters?

A. "I would question that we would consider that a disaster. We had some residual effects from the flooding that we had to address. Most of it had to do with the county roads. There are some options that we are considering for the steeper hills in places where we had the greatest erosion (such as) simply regravelling the areas, working on better drainage systems along the sides of our county roads.

"That's mostly it as far as the county goes. A lot of it would be non-county-related things that commissioners really have no effect on. It's like that dam that broke We could not have anticipated that. I think the county responded appropriately. And it was an inexpensive repair that we could handle ourselves."

Q. What makes Callaway County great?

A. "Our openness to visitors. Our centralized location within the state and the nation. Our agriculture and mining history. We are steeped in agriculture and mining throughout the history of Callaway county.

"It's the people and the compassion - the friendliness - that is an enduring tradition of Callaway County."