With no Republican opposition, Tuesday's primary race is winner-take-all for four of six trustee candidates in Bridgeport Township.

The field is m ade up of incumbents Walter LaShore and Frank J. Morrison, both elected to Board of Trustees posts in 2000 and re-elected in 2004, plus challengers Fred L. Cummings Jr., Paul R. DeSander, Darlene M. Miller and R. Bruce Winchell. Trustee Richard Fisher is not seeking re-election and Trustee Augie Tausend is campaigning for the treasurer's office.

Here are the candidates' views on some of the critical issues:

Blight

Morrison: "I want to continue the progress we've made in the last four years. The Township Board of Trustees and Downtown Development Authority have eliminated 18 blighted residential and four commercial buildings. That's a step in the right direction. It costs about $6,000 to tear down one building, and we are always looking for grants from the federal and state governments to try to supplement our costs."

LaShore: "I'm proud of what we've done out here. We've done a tremendous job in eliminating the blight. We've done this in several ways. We've passed an ordinance to allow us to act on it, and we've acted on it by letting our police officers enforce it. We've also encouraged people to clean up their own neighborhoods, and this has worked tremendously. We've asked the citizens to get involved; you have to sell this thing, because if they don't buy in, we won't get anywhere with it. Citizens can also call in to report eyesores. We investigate the complaints and take it from there. Sometimes it comes down to purchasing a parcel and demolishing the structure ourselves."

DeSander: "Everyone wants to clean it up because it's the image of the community. I'm on the Planning Commission, and that's one of our No. 1 goals. It's money-driven. We need money to go after those areas. I would work on trying to get some federal money to do that, look for sources of funding to continue the program that's under way." Miller: "I know it's been talked about a lot, but I don't know how much has actually been accomplished. I guess I would like to see some action immediately to do something about it. I'm not sure about funding because I'm not real up on the budget. I don't think Bridgeport is covered with blight, but there are abandoned houses that were never taken care of. I think those have been there for a long time and should be taken care of."

Winchell: "I think we need to increase the efforts that are already under way. We've made some decent progress, but we need to expand blight clean-up as well as beautification. I will continue to fully support the expansion of those efforts. It's important for growth."

Cummings: "I know the blight situation has gotten a lot better in past four years. We hired a very good man as blight officer, and he's doing an excellent job. I'd like to clean up the neighborhoods better in order to attract more businesses, small and large. When I was a kid, Bridgeport was a booming little town. We had arcades and roller rinks. We had a lot of things we don't have anymore. We need a nice clean area to attract new businesses."

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brideport_township_trustee_can.html