The incumbent stood on his record, while the challenger stood on his charisma. A third challenger didn’t stand at all — he wasn’t there.

Monday’s forum featuring candidates for the August 28 mayor’s race in Hanceville saw incumbent Kenneth Nail and candidate Rodell Knight offering two differing takes on the city’s recent progress and the direction it’s headed. The third mayoral candidate, Jeff Hancock, didn’t participate.

Knight offered responses to questions on the city’s new relationship with alcohol sales, its police efficiency and overall financial soundness that were often short on specifics, but seemed rooted in emotion and intuition. His voice often cracking with enthusiasm, Knight based many of his answers on personal feelings that informed his decision to seek office.

“I [formerly] drank alcohol — and all the time that I was drinking alcohol, I knew it was wrong,” said Knight when asked his thoughts on how the city will fare in its first four years of legalized sales. “I will say I have not seen one good thing come out of alcohol. I will say I didn’t support it. As far as it being good [for the city]? I don’t know, but that’s what we have law enforcement for, and everyone has the freedom of choice.”

Nail, who himself isn’t known for a lack of charisma, dropped numbers, facts and outcomes as he repeatedly drove home a theme central to his second campaign for the city’s top office.

“Just look around you,” Nail said of the city he’s led since 2008. “If you can say that the City of Hanceville is in worse shape that what it was four years ago, then vote for somebody else. But, if you can look in your heart and say that our city is growing; that we’re proud that it’s clean; that there are people in this office I can talk to, who care…just look around.”

Knight deferred to the current mayor’s knowledge of questions concerning the city’s response to the 2011 tornadoes, and to the way in which Hanceville should go about recruiting industry.

“That’s one of them ‘mayor’ questions I don’t know much about,” Knight responded to questions on each subject. “As far as getting business — just have the right attitude. I think that’s one thing that will draw business into the City of Hanceville. It goes without saying that, in the next four, eight or 10 years, you’re gonna see the city grow significantly because of alcohol. I’m open to any comments, and I’m all for business and growth.”

Nail admitted the city’s current reserve funds aren’t as robust as he’d have hoped before storms forced Hanceville to clear its accounts to fund a massive cleanup effort.

But he drew applause when he explained his role in the city’s decision to spurn the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in favor of bidding out the cleanup work to less costly private contractors.

“That was, in my four years, the best decision that I and the city council made,” he said. “We saved you — the taxpayers — over $7 million by the decision we made, so you tell me — was that wise? When the City of Cullman and Cullman County have to start paying their 10 percent on the $48 [per cubic yard of debris] over our $8, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that you’ve made the right choice.”

Asked his top three priorities over the course of the next mayor’s four-year term, each man offered very different responses.

“I know it’s been said over and over, but the relationship between the townspeople and our city government — it’s got to be an open book,” said Knight.

“Another thing is that I’d like to see the street department get cab air conditioning in their tractors. That’s a big thing to me — there have been people harmed, getting attacked by bees; there’s heat.

“And,” Knight finished, “I want to hear people say, in four years, that we made a good choice [to have elected me].”

Topping Nail’s list of mayoral priorities was ending a state-mandated ban on new sewer tie-ons in the city, a regulatory hurdle that’s made new construction difficult for many homes and retailers seeking to set down roots in Hanceville.

“We’ve got to get out from under the sewer moratorium,” he began. “I think that can happen. We went to Montgomery about two weeks ago to talk to them about the progress we’ve made, and they think that we can hopefully be out from under it around October.

“Water, for Hanceville, is a big deal,” he continued. “The best situation, years ago, was for the water board I was on to crank the well back up. And I’m going to tell you — when the Duck River dam cranks up, and county residents start paying 60 and 70 percent more than Hanceville [is having to pay], there’s gonna be some screaming going on.”

“And the third things is our 1033 [federal] surplus program,” he concluded. “These tall buildings at Wallace State are beautiful, but the ISO requires you to have a ladder truck. Well, we just acquired a ladder truck through the 1033 program. Sometime in the next year or so, I hope our ISO insurance rating will go down. What will that mean to you? Lower insurance rates, and more money in your pocket.”

Knight acknowledged the significance of Wallace State’s presence in Hanceville, but kept his remarks general when asked whether he’d support an effort to woo its leaders to agree to a full annexation into the city limits.

“I don’t know what else to say, other than Wallace State is a big deal — a huge deal,” said Knight. “To have that sitting in the City of Hanceville…I am amazed by it. Wallace is what it is; Hanceville is what it is, and if I’m elected mayor, I will do whatever I can to better Wallace, and hope that Wallace would better Hanceville.”

Nail was unequivocal.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I have worked with [college president] Dr. [Vicki] Hawsey for three and-a-half years, and I think it’s coming. There’s really no reason for Wallace State not to be in the City of Hanceville; absolutely none…Our good friends in Cullman would love to have Wallace State, but it’s right here in downtown Hanceville, Alabama.

“But until the rest of Wallace State comes into the city, the people who live on the back side of the campus can’t come in either, because their property has to touch our city limit.”

Monday’s forum was held at the Evelyn Burrow Center for the Performing Arts on the Wallace State campus — a part of campus that’s inside Hanceville’s city limit.

The mayoral candidate forum series is sponsored by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and The Cullman Times.

The third forum in the seven-part series will feature candidates for mayor at Colony. That forum will take place at 6 p.m. today at the Colony educational complex. The event is free to attend, and is open to the public.