By Josh Bergeron

josh.bergeron@salisburypost.com

The potential future leaders of Rowan County will all be in one place Thursday evening.

Catawba College will host a forum for Rowan County commissioner candidates Thursday at 6 p.m. in Tom Smith Auditorium, which is located at 2300 W. Innes Street.

All candidates for commissioner were invited and confirmed their participation. Commissioner candidates are Leda Belk, who spent her career in law enforcement and education fields; Chris Cohen, who owns a construction business; Raymond Coltrain, who spent his career in the agriculture industry and is currently an independent agriculture consultant; Greg Edds, who runs a local State Farm insurance agency; Jim Greene, who runs an insurance agency in Salisbury;  Judy Klusman, a former Wisconsin state legislator and farmer; Rick Locklear, a lawyer based in Landis and Gene Miller, who spent his career in the banking and education fields.

The forums are free and open to the public. The forum can be watched on channel 16 in Salisbury or channel 22 in southern Rowan. It can also be listened to live on WSAT 1280 and WRNA1140/WRKB 1460.

Catawba Provost and Politics Professor Michael Bitzer will ask questions that were submitted to the Salisbury Post.

Questions submitted to the Post covered a variety of topics.

Candidates for sheriff, clerk of court and register of deeds will also be able to speak briefly at the end of the forum but will not answer questions during the event.

The forum is sponsored by the Salisbury Post, Catawba College, WSAT and the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce.

Channel 16 will be airing the school board forum, which happened Tuesday, nightly at 6:30 p.m.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246