By Joe Bachman

This will be an ongoing series of election briefs leading up to the 2016 elections in April, where we interview candidates on important issues that face the community. This interview is with Lee Thao, who is running for District 1. 

Lee Thao is a longtime resident of Wisconsin Rapids. He is on the board of the Hmong Association of Wood County, as well as the Hmong 18 Council of Wisconsin, representing the Thao clan. Aside from his current duties as a common council representative for Ward 1, he is a bookkeeper for Paper City Savings.

Why are you running for Common Council, again?

I am running for the Common Council because I want to make Wisconsin Rapids a better place.  My hope is that we the Common Council can attract new businesses to the City. Make Wisconsin Rapids a safer place to raise a family, and keep our younger generations to stay here because of what this city has to offer.

What current city projects are you most looking forward to?

I am looking forward to the working on the swimming pool project that is currently ongoing right now.

At 33 years of age, you are considered young for your position as Alderperson. Would you like to see a trend of getting a younger demographic involved in local government and politics?

What I would like to see is more of the younger adults get involved because they are the ones we that are going to be raising their families here in the future.  Whatever decisions we make here is going to have a lasting effect on our future generations.  Therefore, that is why I am running for the Alderperson position.