Place 5 candidates debate trash pickup, public safety and development at ICTN forum

Candidates for Irving City Council Place 5 used their allotted remarks to emphasize different priorities for the same district, with recurring themes of trash pickup, public-safety pay and local infrastructure.

Matt Varble, who said he is endorsed by the Irving Police Association, made trash pickup a central issue: "The city has voted to increase our trash service fees while simultaneously cutting our services by 50%," he said, calling for a return to twice-weekly pickup and higher pay to retain police officers. Varble also cited the city’s "Road to the Future" program, saying the city committed more than $100,000,000 over five years to street repairs.

Heather Stroup, a member of Irving ISD committees and a participant on the city bond task force, noted the bond program she reviewed totaled "$700,000,000 plus" in proposed projects and described investigating a $5,000,000 safety-town request that she said was ultimately removed after donations and volunteer work completed the project. Stroup said staffing shortages ("short 100 people across city departments") contributed to the drop from twice-weekly to once-weekly trash pickup.

Mark Kronewet focused on public-safety ordinances and fire coverage. He said aggressive panhandling has increased and that he would work on an ordinance to address it; he also supported raising police and firefighter pay to about the 80th percentile of comparable cities and proposed relocating Fire Station 8 to a former DART station site to improve response and house ambulance/medic services.

Jesse Koehler emphasized fiscal restraint and minimizing bond use, citing his military and small-business background and saying voters want accessible, accountable representation. Anthony Stanford highlighted code enforcement, permitting and animal-control responsiveness as his priorities.

Why it matters: Place 5 includes areas with recent development and service demands; the candidates’ proposals touch on basic municipal services (trash, streets), public-safety staffing and large bond-funded projects that will shape spending priorities if council composition changes.

The forum included reminders about early voting (April 24–May 2) and Election Day (May 6) and did not include exchanges or formal debate between candidates.