St. Charles residents will vote final two candidates for mayor

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – St. Charles residents will head to the polls on Tuesday to decide the top two mayoral candidates who will move forward to a general election in April.

Tuesday’s ballot will have three names: Venetia Powell, Tom Besselman, and the current mayor, Dan Borgmeyer, who is seeking his first re-election.

“You’ve got to stay alive; you’ve got to keep moving. Historic South Main is a jewel; it’s been alive for years and years,” Borgmeyer said. “But there is a lot more to this city than just that. We’ve got apartment complexes going in, new hotels coming, shipping containers with new restaurants. St. Charles is a vibrant city now.”

While so much of the city is booming, there are still currently five water wells shut down in St. Charles, which means the city is getting more water from St. Louis. It is no surprise that water concerns are at the top of the list for all the candidates.

“I don’t think the city government is doing enough. I think that we should be finding alternate plans right now to be able to have clean water,” Powell said. “Because the more important thing to me when I turn on my tap is to have clean water.”

“We have a very good staff, educated staff, and they look outward towards the country to see who had the same problems,” Besselman said. “Who was educated and what needed to be done, and we’re doing that. The first contract started out as $30,000; it’s over a million dollars now.”

“I’ve moved forward, now we’re purchasing equipment to take our contaminated well water and clean it to absolute zero contaminate, while we build a new well field, which we’re also investigating,” Borgmeyer said. “So I can’t wait three years for the bearcats to solve these problems. So I’m moving forward with things like that.”

Voting will take place on Feb. 7 at voting centers rather than the usual precinct polling locations. City of St. Charles residents may vote at any one of the four locations listed below: