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“When Atchison became mayor in 2003, we had the highest crime rate. In 2016, we still have the highest crime rate,” Moore said.

Atchison was the only candidate who took exception to the debate’s format.

“Unfortunately, trying to talk over each other like that — myself, I believe in being more of a gentlemen and not interrupting and butting in,” he said after the debate.

Moore said she liked the open debate style.

“I was really comfortable with the format. I appreciate the opportunity. When you are in a forum there is a lot you want to respond to, you want to say,” she said.

Clark said the open format was a good chance for the candidates to respond to each other and debate the issues.

“I think that’s the point of the debate. We were supposed to talk and debate, so I found that interesting, that (Atchison) felt it was a bit too intense for him,” he said.

Hein said he also liked the format and he hopes it will give voters the chance to know him better.

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Roads:

The first topic of the morning was roads. Atchison defended his record, saying the city has stepped up efforts in recent years to fix potholes.

“We had to do all the roads and the major arterial collector roads, first of all, in order to get where we want to be,” he said.

Clark, too, said the city is working hard, but that in order to free up enough cash to continue the work, officials need to “rethink” the approach.

“There is a catch-up game going on … The way we are going to properly look after what we already built is to have an overall plan for managing our growth,” Clark said.