The candidates for Mexico’s two City Council seats tend to agree on the city’s near future needs.

Foremost on the minds of Chris Miller, Vicki Briggs and Richard Gold are seeing through completion of the new Aquatic Center, improving local parks, ridding the city of the A.P. Green relic and that often elusive goal of economic growth.

Much of their agendas focus on upgrades already approved or underway, such as the runway lighting project at the airport and sidewalk improvement work. They see no specific looming issues on the near future horizon.

Economic development is also an ongoing effort, but more difficult to pin down.

Miller and Briggs are incumbents seeking reelection to the council in the April 6 election. Richard Gold moved to the city four years ago after purchasing the Budget Inn. It is his first foray into local politics after a career in the Navy.

Joshua Price, the fourth candidate on April’s ballot, hopes to bring the community together. His interest is in the future, more specifically the younger generation and their learning the importance of participating in the electoral process.

The top two vote-getters will be elected.

The pool remains on schedule for a Memorial Day weekend opening. For Briggs it represented the biggest concern of her current term in office. That and the city park system remain important issues.

“We need things for our children to do,” she said.

Miller notes that the pool was the first project the city borrowed money to complete since he began serving on the council six years ago. Use tax funds are paying off the loan.

He decided to run again because of projects such as the pool that are not quite finished.

“The biggest concern is the old A.P. Green property,” he said. “It’s getting to be a real mess.”

Because the land is zoned for heavy industry, the A.P. Green site comes up in conversations over economic growth. The city now owns the property and is actively seeking a buyer. The ripple effect – should a buyer be found and a new industry be put in place – fits into the yet to be defined plans for development.

“It amazed me that Mexico 70 years ago had the exact same population as today,” Gold observed. “When one thing left, something else popped up – that’s not growth.”

Gold said the purchase of the hospital by Noble Health is a good starting point. Noble Health plans to bring in new care providers.

For the most part, however, growth remains a riddle.

“I’m interested in how we can help industry grow,” Miller said. “We need to figure out how to get new people to move to Mexico.”