For the City Times

TOWN OF ROME – To aid in voter education for the April 6 election, the Romemakers Home and Community Educators (HCE) will sponsor a virtual voter forum on March 17 on the town’s website at www.romewi.com.

The live broadcast of the forum will start with the Rome town board candidates, 5:30-6:30 p.m., followed by the Nekoosa School Board candidates, 7-8 p.m.

On your television, Solarus Channel 300 will carry the live broadcast of the forum. Channel 300 will also re-broadcast the forum March 18-April 5, at noon and 8 p.m.

On your computer, go to the town of Rome website, look under “Community Services,” then click on Channel 300 Live Feed tab.

As recommended by the League of Women Voters, each candidate will have a chance to introduce themselves to the audience, then the question-and-answer period will begin. Final questions to be presented to the candidates at the forum will be selected from those submitted ahead of time.  Each candidate will be given up to two minutes to respond to each question asked.  At the end, each candidate will be able to make a closing statement.

The Rome Town Hall is still closed due to the pandemic, so the public will not be able to attend in person.

How to submit questions

Written questions for the candidates need to be submitted prior to the forum.

Questions can be submitted to a voter’s forum box located at the Rome Library.  Questions can also be submitted in the drop box in the Rome Town Hall vestibule, if placed in an envelope marked voter’s forum.

The deadline to submit questions is March 12 at noon.

“Questions should deal with issues, not with personalities. A committee of residents will screen the questions for clarity and to avoid duplication.  Each candidate running for a particular position will have the opportunity to respond to each question,” a HCE release stated.