The Merrill Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a Mayoral Candidate’s Forum on Wednesday, Feb. 10. The forum will be held in the Merrill High School auditorium from 6-8 p.m. Doors will open to the public at 5:45 p.m.

There are three candidates running for the mayoral position currently held by Doug Williams who announced in November that he would not seek reelection. Merrill voters will narrow the field of candidates from three to two with a spring primary election on Feb. 16. The two candidates with the most votes will be placed on the ballot for the spring general election in April. The three candidates that are vying for Mayor are: Patsy Woller, Ray Bloomer and William Bialecki.

All three candidates have accepted the invitation to participate in the forum and Mr. Art Lersch, UW-Extension will be the moderator for the event. Merrill residents may submit questions they would like the candidates to respond to, in writing, to the Chamber office by Feb. 5. All questions should be relevant and issues oriented to be considered and must include: name, address and telephone number of the person submitting the question. The candidates will have a limited amount of time to respond to each question asked, so the questions used during the forum will be pre-selected by the moderator to conform to the time allotted within the schedule of the forum.

Due to time limitation, not all questions submitted will be used. The moderator plays a neutral role and as such has the final decision on questions being used.

A short meet-n-greet will be held immediately following the forum so the audience can mingle with the candidates informally.

"We are very pleased that all three candidates accepted our invitation to participate in the mayoral forum," stated Debbe Kinsey, chamber executive director. "We felt that it was important for the voters of Merrill to have the opportunity to hear the candidates’ positions on relevant topics facing our community today and into the future."

If you would like to submit a question for the candidates, please mail to or drop them at the Merrill Chamber of Commerce, 705 N. Center Ave., Merrill, 54452. Or for more information contact the Chamber at 536-9474.