Four candidates in Blackfoot Mayoral race

The mayoral race in Blackfoot is heating up. With three new candidates up against an incumbent, the election is a big one.

Mayor Paul Loomis is hoping he can continue with his plans for Blackfoot.

“I would just continue with the goals that I have so far,” Mayor Loomis said. “And that’s fiscal responsibility, dealing with our infrastructure, making sure that we’re planning for the future, working economic development. All of those things that I have already started and would like to go through.”

If elected, Chase VanOrden hopes to lift the spirit of Blackfoot among many other things.

“We need to look at growing smart where we’re adding you know, people to the taxpayers,” VanOrden said. “Because that’s gonna help the taxes go down, by having more people. We need to bring in new business, and not just minimum wage jobs, we need to bring in higher paying jobs. We need to show them that we have a city here that’s ready for them and excited to have them. We need to show them that we’re educated and we’re ready, you know, to grow and work alongside companies.”

Jim Thomas wants to create a more transparent administration.

“Transparency’s big,” Thomas said. “I would like to be able to lower the taxes so we can attract more businesses into Blackfoot. If you attract businesses, you’re going to attract jobs and jobs would be real important.”

Marc Carroll wants to update the appearance of the city overall.

“I believe that we need to bring professionalism to work and all the work processes that are done by the city,” Carroll said. “That in turn is going to make for a better infrastructure, better spending of the city budget and then attract businesses.”

The last day for in-person absentee voting and early voting is this Friday, November 3rd.