Though the presidential elections are about a year away, the mayoral elections in Eagle are on Nov.7. Lots of new and old faces alike are vying for the position.
Starting with Jason Pierce, the current mayor of Eagle, is running for a second term. Marc Degl’Innocenti, a former police officer, is planning to run against Pierce, along with current fire chief of Eagle, Brad Pike. Another person running for the title is former Eagle mayor, Stan Ridgeway, who lost to Pierce in 2019.
One hot point this year for candidates is going to be the senior center debate. The Eagle Senior Center has been under fire from the city after they were sued in 2021 over allegations of fraud from the center.
According to Margret Camel, working for www.boisedev.com, “The city’s allegations stem from the approval of a $100,000 payment to the nonprofit in the summer of 2021 after it suffered losses due to COVID-19.” All candidates have opposing views from each other over that debate among others, though there’s one thing that none of the candidates’ debate.
That would be the budget of Eagle. All four candidates running want to shrink the budget, and seem to want to conserve as much money as they can when it comes down to it. They all want to spend the money on Eagle and make sure it is a great place for Eagle residents. They also have concerns over land around Eagle as well.
Degl’Innocenti also says that he is against the idea of annexing the newly constructed houses out in the Boise foothills in the subdivision, Avimor, into Eagle in March of this year. Avimor is a relatively new construction project that started out in the foothills in 2004, though the first home wasn’t built until 2008.
According to developers, the project is set to continue expanding to the surrounding land, leaving plenty of space for outside activity, and is said to finalize in 2060. Avimor has expanded in the last couple of years, adding not only a school to their list of buildings, but pools, businesses, and gas stations too.
According to www.avimor.com, “Avimor sits on nearly 23,000 acres of beautiful foothills land surrounding Boise, Idaho.” The owners of the land and heads of the project, the McLeod family, are fourth generation Idahoans and want people to live in harmony with the natural world around them according to the website. Ridgeway, Pike and Degl’ Innocenti are all against the annexation of the land to Eagle, even with the growth and economic prosperity that it could entail.
As November rolls around, it’s a good idea to learn more about the candidates and what they stand for. Voters can find their websites at www.soseagle.com/candidates/.
