After the first day of early voting, all five Buda City Council candidates sat down at a forum hosted by the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce to answer community questions. The Place 1 and Place 2 candidates were asked by moderators about what kind of businesses they’d like to see come to Buda. Place 1 Candidate John Hatch said the city needs to make the most of its position on the highway in order to bring in more businesses. “We need to continue to take advantage of the corridor,” Hatch said. “The Austin-to-San Antonio corridor is not just one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, it’s one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. We need to be continuing to support the efforts ... to bring in good quality businesses.” Buda is positioned to grow very quickly, Place 1 candidate Theodore Kosub said. “Small businesses are the engine that drive this country,” he said. “They create a lot of jobs. So of course, small business would be great, and encouraging some light commercial activity would also be good. But I would prefer to not see a lot of heavy industrial development come to this town.” Enticing businesses to set their roots in Buda can help pay taxes and infrastructure costs, Place 1 candidate Lee Urbanovsky said, but small, family-owned Buda businesses need more support. “To see Nonna Gina’s leaving, and to see those businesses close up, it takes away from what Buda is,” Urbanovsky said. “We need to find a way to protect downtown.” Incumbent Council Member Wiley Hopkins, Place 2, has served on a committee within the Buda Economic Development Corporation that focused on attracting small and commercial businesses to town. “It’s important that we be open-minded to businesses wanting to come into this community and embrace their needs, as far as fees established and availability of staff to assist them in the process,” Hopkins said. Place 2 Candidate Jeffrey Morales is also interested in seeing more small businesses make Buda their home. “I’d like to see small businesses [come to Buda]—veteran-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, female-owned businesses,” Morales said. “I’d like to see more family-owned types of businesses here, because that’s what Buda represents.”