Three candidates have filed petitions to join the two incumbents on the ballot in Kewanee’s April 1 municipal election.
Running against incumbents Tyrone Baker and Steve Faber will be Adam Cernovich, Scott Withrow and Obrey Blumenshine.
Cernovich served in the Coast Guard as a helicopter pilot on the search and rescue team. In his more than 20 years in the service, he attained the rank of commander.
He attended elementary and high school in Kewanee and earned a degree at the Coast Guard Academy and an engineering degree from Purdue University.
Since moving his family to Kewanee, Cernovich has been interested in the city’s local government. He has attended City Council meetings regularly and has addressed the council on issues he considers important.
Cernovich said he industrial engineering background would make him a strong council member. He also said he’d like to take a look at the city’s community economic development plan, and help create strategies to achieve the goals listed in the plan. He said he will strive to clearly describe his vision to the community.
Cernovich said he feels the city government could do more to nurture small-business develpment, and to assure that every dollar spent by the city will create the best impact.
“Economics is really where I’m at,” he said.
Withrow is a photographer with Treasure Chest Photography in Kewanee. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science, he said, and does volunteer work in the community — especially helping homeless people.
WIthrow said his campaign has three priorities:
— “Get our side streets fixed,” he said. While Kewanee’s main streets are in decent shape, Withrow said, many of the side streets are not.
— Bring more businesses into Kewanee. “I can get new businesses in here,” Withrow said. “Wherever there’s a niche, I can fill that niche with a new business.”
— Build a homeless shelter in Kewanee. Withrow said there are lots of homeless people in the city, with few resources to help them.
Blumenshine moved to Kewanee last year with his wife and daughter. He works at Menards, and said he has also worked as a veterinary technician and a chemical compounder.
He said he is from California and his wife is from the state of Washington. They moved here because he has family in Kewanee, and they found a nice home at a good price here.
His wife works at Amazon, mostly from home with occasional trips to the Amazon office in the Quad Cities.
Blumenshine said he has met many people working at Menards, and he invited Kewanee residents to come to the store from 5 to 9 p.m. and meet with him.
***Tyrone Baker and Steve Faber have not responded to a request from The Kewanee Voice for information on their goals for the city in the next four years. The Kewanee Voice will post that information if it becomes available.
