The more and more we talk about how newspapers need to evolve in this new market, the need for news to be more of a dialogue continues to crop up. So, in an effort to let you guys know pretty close to everything, giving you the chance to decide what effects you the most, the Globe Blog is starting the "Reporter's Notebook."

In it, we will essentially give you a run-down of other issues that came up during meetings or events that didn't make it into that day's papers. Nothing polished, this is simply a straight, notebook look at what was said and issues that were raised.

In the first entry, reporter Mark Vierthaler will give a rundown of some of the other questions that were raised during the Saturday, March 15 city commission candidates forum that didn't make into the print story or the video.

What is the mill levy?

Commission hopefuls Brian Weber, Monte Broeckelman, Dorothy Faulkner and incumbent Jim Sherer game a brief rundown on what exactly the mill levy is. The issue boils down to: The higher the assessed value of property in a city, the more a mill is worth. The more the mill is worth, the less mills are needed. The less mills are needed, the fewer taxes are placed on properties

What should be done about the graffiti problem in Dodge City?

Weber says he has posed the question to several police officers over the past several months. One thing they've told him is that the city didn't have quite the problem with graffiti 20 years ago that it does now. It is a relatively new problem. Faulkner offered similar acknowledgment that graffiti was a growing issue in the area. She said it would be nice if people could catch those in act of vandalizing property. Faulkner asked citizens to help each other out and clean up whatever you have that may have been tagged.
Broeckelman said he felt a large problem with those tagging property is they did not have enough to do. He said everyone needed to focus as a community and perhaps find ways of setting examples an putting teeth behind the vandalism laws. Sherer largely echoed what the other candidates said, saying more attention needed to be paid as a whole.

How do you feel about downtown revitalization and any timeline?

Faulkner, Broeckelman, Sherer and Weber all expressed a need to pump energy back into Dodge's lagging downtown area. Faulkner said she would like to see the city really push for accreditation of downtown as a historic district. Broeckelman said he felt traffic needed to be funneled back into downtown somehow, giving easier access to the area from the south. Sherer said the current reworking of the city's master plan was looking at addressing downtown stagnation, while Weber pushed for improving the "general aesthetic" of the area

What's your perception of Dodge City's budget and where we've been and where we're going?

Sherer told those in attendance the current budget is around $32,000,000. He said the building of a special events center and casino would help pump some money back into the community. Faulkner said she has been asked multiple times that, if elected, she would lower taxes. She said she couldn't make any such promises, but she would work at lessening some of the burden. Both Broeckelman and Weber pushed for increased citizen involvement in the budgeting process.