SOAP LAKE - About 50 people packed into the Desert Diner in Soap Lake to hear five city council candidates discuss ideas for the town's future.

The meeting was organized by mayoral candidate Raymond Gravelle, position one candidate John Glassco, position 2 candidate Kat Sanderson, position 6 candidate Keith Hagglund and position 7 candidate Dave Ready.

The five candidates are running on the same "Five For the Future" platform, advocating better promotion of the city to revitalize the economy and increase revenues for improved police services and infrastructure. The group also says they'd like to see greater citizen involvement in local government and city events.

"There's never been a more important time to have strong public servants with solid problem solving and consensus building skills to lead our town out of its economic and population decline," Gravelle said at the beginning of the meeting. "The alternative is for Soap Lake to fall by the wayside and become a ghost town."

Each candidate organizing the meeting proposed several solutions to key issues, although most returned to the core idea that the town's revitalization hinges on better promotion.

Hagglund addressed public safety, saying crime rates are too high and response times are too slow - issues that could be resolved by moving more money toward police. Instead of hiking utility rates to help pay for more cops and other needed improvements, Hagglund said more tourism could bring more tax dollars in.

Gravelle discussed how the city might start producing a newsletter and better utilize its website to garner more community involvement. If elected, he would add a mayors blog, hold open office hours and host a "mayor's invitational breakfast" for civic leaders, all to provide a two-way dialogue, he said.

City council also needs to begin actively marketing Soap Lake to outside business interests and individuals, according to Ready, who was absent but gave comments Sunday via speakerphone.

"You've got to have people around before businesses feel comfortable investing in your town," Ready stated, adding the "old regime" has not been doing enough to draw people to the city.

While Moses Lake, Ephrata and Quincy have grown by as much as 33 percent over the past decade, Glassco pointed to census numbers showing the population of Soap Lake dropped more than 12 percent in the same period. He said it will be difficult for a dwindling population to continue paying for the upkeep of aging streets, water and sewer systems.

"We have to get a handle on what we're trying to solve here and by refusing to do economic development we're not helping ourselves in the long run," he said. "I want to give credit to past administrations for getting us to this point but we have to do more."

The city must move away from simply focusing on keeping costs down, he said, remarking on how creativity is needed to search out public/private partnerships and grant opportunities to help economic development.

The group plans to hire a grant writer who could examine what funding opportunities are available for researching, restoring and protecting the lake, Sanderson said. She noted how the proposed McKay Research and Wellness Institute could bring 125 new jobs to the community and suggested more be done to make Soap Lake a mecca for the current natural healing trend.

"I think we really need to promote what we have," he said. "I believe the lake is a gift and we need to share that gift."

Dozens of audience members gave input and posed questions during a question and answer period, with topics ranging from how to entice more volunteers to help with city events to smoothing the city's perceived image problem.

Much conversation centered on how the city council might help bring new business to town, which in turn might draw more tourists.

"It's kind of a chicken and egg situation," Glassco said. "If you brought 1,000 people a day to Soap Lake with money to spend there's really not very much for them to do and the reason is because the storefronts are empty. If you had the people coming here those storefronts would fill up, and if the storefronts filled up you'd probably have people coming here."

He and other candidates said the city's role is to promote creative ways to start the process, such as building a 60-foot Lava Lamp.

"If you did build something that was outrageous, colorful and interesting and everybody knew it, then they would come," he said.

Current Mayor Wayne Hovde questioned whether it's the city council's job to promote Soap Lake.

"What you're talking about, you're way out of whack with what your duties and positions will be if you're elected," Hovde said. "You don't realize the city does not do this, the citizens do it through the chamber of commerce. The city officials are not elected to be a chamber of commerce. They run the business of the city."

Soap Lake resident Diane Crummett countered that the mayor of Wilson Creek found grants to pay for new streets and sidewalks for the town.

"She didn't have to do that in her job description maybe, but if you have enthusiasm and creativity anything can happen," she said.

The group plans to hold more such meetings in the future, Sanderson said, adding that other candidates and incumbent members of the city council might be included.