With elections coming up, what do the candidates for mayor have to say on the issues affecting the city of Tombstone. Incumbent Mayor Jack Henderson faces-off with challenger Stephen S. Schmidt to have their say.

Jack Henderson, 70, retired airline pilot

Mayor Jack Henderson believes what he’s done as mayor has been proactive and should continue.

“We are moving our city forward,” he said.

Henderson moved to Tombstone in 2003, after retiring from the airline industry. He visited and fell in love with the town.

Henderson graduated from Iowa State University with an industrial degree, before joining the U.S. Marine Corps to fly medical helicopters in Vietnam.

His goals as mayor are a five-year plan for parks and recreation, repairing roads, fix the water and several others.

“Being mayor of Tombstone keeps my blood pumping,” Henderson said.

Are there any specific projects you want to focus on during your term?

The specific projects that we are focusing on are many and also include plans for our water supply. And not in order of importance or priority, but finish Huachuca Mountain Springs project. The last time it was destroyed it took almost four years to complete.

I want to implement a Parks and Recreation five-year plan that I have completed and complete plans for a second large reservoir next to our present 1.2-million gallon reservoir. Work with fire chief to complete and submit plans for an emergency water system that is a dedicated line direct from our reservoir to a fire hydrant system that does not use treated drinking water, which is a solution that has a good chance for grant money.

I want to focus on completing a five-year plan to update our city water infrastructure and our wastewater plant with needed improvements and upgrade training for city employees’ licenses.

I want to finish fixing and replacing all non-operational fire hydrants in the city and install arsenic filtering or blending equipment on well No. 1 so that it meets government standards.

Lastly, I want to complete the first phase of our five-year street repair and resurfacing project.

What are some issues in town that you would like to see improved or fixed?

The issue I think needs improvement is the merchant support of our Chamber of Commerce.

If financial wrongdoing is found in the Chamber of Commerce audit case, do you support prosecution? Why or why not?

I took an oath of office to uphold the law. If prosecution is warranted so be it, but understand it is in the hands of the county attorney or our state attorney general.

Several businesses have complained about the solicitation ordinance. Are you planning on changing it or seeing how it can be improved?

I am not planning any changes to our solicitation ordinance but I have suggested solutions within the spirit of the ordinance.

Inn owners and others have said the bed tax increase is unfair. What do you think about the tax increase? What can be done to equalize the community’s burden?

The bed tax was raised 1 percent and is used to promote the City of Tombstone.  This places no burden on our taxpayers.

Do you support a bypass for Highway 80 to a different street than Freemont? Why or why not?

I do support a bypass study and I understand it could happen in 20 years or so and it would be nice to know what our options might be. This would give our future city leaders a chance to plan ahead, especially Planning and Zoning commission in conjunction with Parks and Recreation. I understand one option has a scenic overlook above the city.

True West magazine didn’t include Tombstone in its list of best Old West towns because of political infighting and the way the city represents history. What do you plan on doing about the political infighting in Tombstone? How do you want to revitalize the history of Tombstone?

The fact that True West magazine eliminated Tombstone because of political infighting is something I don’t understand because all votes of the City Council have been unanimous with an occasional abstention for personal reasons.

The revitalization of our history is being handled through our new Archive facility now open to all researchers and individuals to come, see, and learn the true history of Tombstone.

How do you plan to make the tourists’ experiences better?

This facility plus the Karl May Museum opening in approximately one week, Arizona Ranger Museum coming soon, Boot Hill Graveyard face lift, Schieffelin Hall repainted and the hiring of a city-paid promotions professional to improve our tourists’ experience as the No. 1 Western town in America, will make our tourists’ experience much better.

Stephen S. Schmidt, 56, self-employed 

Stephen Schmidt decided to run for mayor after he grew frustrated with Tombstone’s politics.

Schmidt attended the University of Arizona for two years. In 1985, while working as a bricklayer in Sierra Vista, he entered into a partnership to buy Johnny Ringo's Bar in Tombstone. Schmidt was on the Planning and Zoning commission from 2000 until 2006 and has served two terms as city council member.

“The streets weren’t being taken care of, the water system, the whole infrastructure,” Schmidt said. “Since the recall started, the current mayor has started to do things. But you can’t back off, you can’t say, ‘Forget it.’ People still aren’t happy.”

Are there any specific projects you want to focus on during your term?

There are a lot of them. The water system needs to be upgraded. They’ve been working on the mountain up there but it doesn’t do any good. No matter how much water they get out of the mountain, you still only have the capacity of the reservoir. So once that fills up, what do you do with the water you’re trying to generate from springs? It fills up because the filtration plant can only run 75 gallons to 100 gallons. It comes in faster than it goes out.

They’ve sold off the garbage pickup, created ordinances for that. The ordinance sits there and says if you don’t take city pick up, you still have to pay for it. If you don’t pay for it, then the city will cut your water off.

What are some issues in town that you would like to see improved or fixed?
There are a lot of things that need to be done in the city. The roads need to be fixed. They’ve gone and done an emergency response contractor given them a price for each piece of equipment but to sit there and seal the roads in an emergency deal, that’s not right. They’re going to do the sub base with that equipment but if the chips get washed away then it’s their fault not the contractor. They only have enough money to do two miles. That’s too much in the way of streets for what they want to repair.

If financial wrongdoing is found in the Chamber of Commerce audit case, do you support prosecution? Why or why not?

I haven’t seen that. I probably shouldn’t comment on it.

Several businesses have complained about the solicitation ordinance. Are you planning on changing it or seeing how it can be improved?

The solicitation ordinance has been a problem forever. No one abides by it. Basically when Dean Harper put it in, but you know put wording in a lot stronger, 1996 all the gun shows were fighting on corners over customers, so when he did that it was like a big threat. They wanted to scare them enough that they’d all play along and play fair. It goes a little ways but not far enough. Then they redid it. That’s always been a problem since back in the 70s, when they only had gun shows on Sundays.

Most of the time, it’s business owners who create the problem, one of them fighting. I don’t think there will ever be a good solution. If they enforce it, everyone complains. If they don’t, everyone complains. It depends on what side of the street you’re on.

Inn owners and others have said the bed tax increase is unfair. What do you think about the tax increase? What can be done to equalize the community’s burden?

The tax increase, I don’t agree with that. I know some of the council thought the 3 percent increase was going to be a tax but it was on top of the other 3 percent that they had.

That money should be used for promoting the town and advertising and I’m not sure that’s where it’s going. Who’s advertising the town? The bed tax has been taken from the Chamber (of Commerce).

I don’t see the reason for the increase. I haven’t seen more advertising for the town than what there was before.

Do you support a bypass for Highway 80 to a different street than Freemont? Why or why not?

I don’t really think it’s a good idea and I don’t think it will help the town. They came up and had six different ideas on where they were going to put it, and probably to me what it would do is what it did to Williams or Benson; it kind of killed the downtown businesses.

Williams they have the Grand Canyon Train now so they had something to bounce back with. Benson when they put the bypass down there all the property values and businesses downtown went down and died down there.

Tombstone doesn’t have anything to bring them back if they do bypass it. The state would probably put it on the north side of town, and they wouldn’t have to buy land to put it in, or south of town for the mining district but then they have trouble with the mines.

True West magazine didn’t include Tombstone in its list of best Old West towns because of political infighting and the way the city represents history. What do you plan on doing about the political infighting in Tombstone? How do you want to revitalize the history of Tombstone?

The problem with the history of Tombstone is everything is focused on the gunfight. The gunfights don’t pay any attention to the history. You have the courthouse, Bird Cage Theatre, Boot Hill and others. It should be more directed toward the history in my opinion than just the gunfight.

That was glorified on TV a long time ago and most of those people are pretty old. I don’t even remember the shows about Wyatt Earp.

Then they got a big boost from the movie but that’s been over 20 years, and even when the tourist business people came out, it was seasonal. After Christmas, you’d get a boost and when school got out in Texas and California, you got a boost from people traveling cross-country. That’s probably where the tourist industry is going.

And as for infighting, you could turn that to a national level, I don’t know if infighting is ever going to stop. You get it at every level of government. That’s just the way things are.

How do you plan to make the tourists’ experiences better?

Like I said, more focus should be on the courthouse, Bird Cage Theatre, Boot Hill and other historical interest places. It should be more directed toward the history of the town instead of that one gunfight.

Polls will be at the American Legion

225 East Allen Street

6 a.m. to 7 p.m.