 Well, with Election Day one week away, it's down to the wire for two candidates running for Bemidji's highest office. Josh Peterson shares with us how both mayoral candidates hope to lead the city into the future. It's not uncommon for campaign signs to dot the landscape during an election year, but within Bemidji's city limits, siging for mayor outnumber other offices. Incumbent Mayor Rita Albright and former Beltrami County Commissioner Joe Vinny are both buying for the seat to lead the city. I'd like to continue to lead the city forward on a positive path, continue to develop new businesses and work on making sure that our event center is serving the population the way it needs to. Public input, all government again is local. I want to engage the public and be having it open-form at all times. The ongoing issue of taxes will also be on the table along with the possibility of a hospitality food and beverage tax to support a property tax reduction. How do we get more dollars into the coffers without raising taxes? And one of those ideas is to capture more tourism dollars. So when tourists come here and spend money, how can we capture more of that outside funding and outside spending to do better for our community? If we can utilize ways and means to increase the use of facilities, build the economic development dimension, increased jobs will be able to stabilize. Another campaign issue being brought to the forefront is the Samford Center, its management and how to maintain the aging facility. Grow the use, increase the revenue and decrease the operating deficit so that in the time to come we'll have that viability that can be ours with this relatively new event center. We're building ages. We're going to have additional capital needs there. So being able to reduce that property tax levy that we're using now and hold property taxes flat or reduce them is one of the goals that we would have. With a tight race expected, this is one where every vote counts. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. Joe Venney served as Beltrami County District 2 Commissioner for 12 years and lost re-election in 2016. Rita Albright was first elected as Mayor in 2012 and is seeking her fourth term in office. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.