(WDHN) — The City of Enterprise is gearing up for one of its most contested mayoral elections in 20 years.

That’s why all this week, WDHN will talk with each mayoral candidate about his platform if elected. Each night, we’ll feature a different question that the candidates will respond to.

The first question of the series: What would you say is the biggest challenge facing Enterprise right now and why?

“Strategic planning,” said mayoral candidate Bill Baker. “Right now, the strategic plan that the city has is decades old. We need to plan for our future. We need to understand what resources are required and what resources are going to be needed in the next five to ten years.”

“Well, one of the biggest challenges facing Enterprise right now is continuing to do what we can with our infrastructure,” said Mayor William Cooper. “We need an aquatics center, we need some fields for soccer, and we also need to expand Highway 167. We have industries up there that need to have information, need to get information out and information in. Enterprise is steadily progressing and it has grown leaps and bounds.”

“The biggest challenge is working within our economy right now,” said candidate Lister Reeves. “Financial issues, one, we’ve got to get together with our city leaders. Our city council and our department heads to figure out where to go on the next step. Today’s economy, we’re facing a lot of challenges. We don’t know what the future may hold. So we’ve got to be proactive and get together and make sure that we have a game plan going forward so that when this next year starts that we are ready for it, that we’re prepared for it, and we’ve got to be able to prepare for unexpected circumstances as well. So I think that’s going to be one of our biggest challenges going forward. And that, along with Enterprise right now has several department leaders that need to be replaced, that are going to be retiring. We’re going to have to find qualified personnel to take over those positions so that they can lead enterprise into the next phase of its growth.”

“Enterprise, like a lot of other cities around our country, faces a major problem having to do with its infrastructure,” said candidate Perry Vickers. “Our streets are in deplorable condition and they need to be paved. Just to put it frank and blunt. It’s going to take time and it’s going to take a lot of money. But they’ve gotten in that kind of condition. It’s what we need to do. We need to fix it.”