Ellington

Alexian Village is hosting a forum for the six candidates running for Signal Mountain Town Council Wednesday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. The event in the Alexian Town Hall is open to the community.

“We are becoming more and more a place where people want to be on view,” said forum organizer Dudley Meadows, Alexian Village Residents Association representative.

He said all six candidates — Jason Bowling, Dick Gee, Frank Preston, Jeremy Rardin, incumbent Susan Robertson and Bill Wallace — have agreed to participate.

Meadows said he will come up with a handful of non-partisan questions for moderator and Residents Association President Claire Hale to direct at each candidate, who will then issue a timed response.

“As a group, this age demographic tends to have the highest percentage of registered voters,” said Alexian Brothers Senior Ministries President and CEO Matthew Fox of the approximately 450 current Alexian Village residents.

He said a significant portion of Alexian residents are native or longtime residents of Signal Mountain.

“When you have everything at your disposal [like Alexian residents], you become disconnected from the community,” said Fox. “I want the residents to still be involved with the greater community beyond Alexian Village and receive the same benefits.”

Alexian hosted a debate July 22 for District 2 Hamilton County Commission candidates Jim Fields and David Cantrell, which was also organized by Meadows. He said the event nearly filled the town hall with 225 attendees, around half of which were Alexian residents.

Like July’s debate, the Signal Mountain Town Council forum will also be broadcast live on Alexian’s in-house TV station.