Gardner City Council forum centers on managing city’s explosive growth — Watch the full video

Managing Gardner’s explosive growth came up repeatedly in a forum for candidates vying for the Gardner City Council hosted by the Johnson County Post on Wednesday night.

From building enough affordable housing to financing necessary infrastructure upgrades to considering the possibility of eventually transitioning to a ward-based city council, the topic of the city’s growing population was woven into several of the candidates’ responses.

The forum in the auditorium at Trail Ridge Middle School, 495 E. Grand St., in Gardner, came on the eighth of 12 scheduled nights of local candidate forums that the Post is hosting across Johnson County ahead of the Nov. 4 election.

The event was moderated by Post editor Kyle Palmer.

All five candidates on the ballot, including two incumbents, vying for two at-large seats on the council, participated.

Who is running?

• Mark Baldwin (incumbent)
• Kelly Johnson
• Dawn Kirtley 
• Steve Shute (incumbent)
• John Snyder

How to watch the Post’s forum

The Post livestreamed Wednesday’s event on our Facebook page. A recording of the forum can be viewed there, though it is now Facebook’s policy to erase live videos 30 days after they are produced.

You can also watch the full Gardner forum on the Post’s new YouTube channel, where it should be preserved into the future.

The full forum video is also embedded below:

Questions

The candidates gave opening statements and answered a series of questions based on reader feedback and suggestions received by the Post before and during the event.

Timestamps are included at the end of each question to help you navigate through the forum video if you’d like to jump around to issues that matter most to you.

1. Opening statements [2:45]
2. Challenge/priority: What is the next big challenge facing Gardner? And how will you address it over the next four years on the board? [8:00]
3. Budget and spending: As you face difficult decisions about what city services to fund and how much to spend in coming years, what city services will you want to protect most? On the other hand, are there aspects of city spending you want to see trimmed? [15:54]

   

4. Property taxes: We frequently hear from readers urging cities to consider tax rate cuts or other relief to counteract the impacts of rising valuations in Johnson County. It’s the job of each city’s governing body to set your city’s annual mill levy, or property tax, rate. For 2026, the Gardner City Council recently approved a budget that includes a flat mill levy rate of roughly 18 mills. Is your city’s current tax rate appropriate for your city’s needs? Would you vote for steeper tax rate cuts, as residents often call for? Why or why not? [22:33]

   

5. Housing: Gardner has greenlit a number of major housing developments in recent months, including a new nearly 250-home subdivision on the city’s western periphery and another 250-home residential project east of I-35. The need for affordable housing is one of the things we hear most about from readers … across Johnson County. What policies would you like your city to pursue to make housing in your city potentially more affordable? Is this a priority for you? [29:19]

   

6. Aspen Place: Speaking of affordable housing, the city earlier this year condemned the Aspen Place Apartments near New Century AirCenter … after years of growing neglect and tenant issues at the complex. Many displaced residents agreed that the complex was rundown but they criticized the city’s approach to condemning the property and giving residents roughly 48 hours to evacuate with very little warning beforehand. What can the city do moving forward to avoid such a situation again? And is there any future for the Aspen Place complex that the city can be involved with in the future? [35:38]
7. Moving to ward-based election system: This question comes from the audience. This person notes all city council races currently are at-large. Do you have thoughts on the city eventually moving to a district-based (or ward-based) council election system? [42:12]

   

8. Downtown: This from an audience member, “Many Gardner residents appreciate the small-town feel of Gardner. What would you like to see happen in the downtown retail area to establish Gardner as an attractive small-town feel and not the current tired downtown look?” [46:52]

   

9. Youth programming: Another question from the audience, “What role should the city play in keeping young people safe and engaged outside of school hours? Is there any role for the city to support programs that impact youth safety and community well-being?” [52:23]
10. Qualifications: Consider this question a prompt for a closing statement. What qualifies you for this job? Why should voters vote for you? [58:11]