DELCAMBRE, La. (KLFY) -- Incumbent Pam Blakely and Alderman of District 3 Christopher "Tipper" Esponge face off to become Delcambre's next mayor. Here's what you need to know about the two candidates.

Incumbent Pam Blakely

Blakely is looking to claim a third term as Delcambre's mayor. She said cleaning up the town has been a goal of hers since her first term.

“We had some struggles, so my second term got a little bit better. So in the second term we did, we started demolishing houses and cleaning up yards and together with the citizens in Delcambre things are coming together and it's getting cleaned up and driving through Delcambre is a much better place,” she said.

If elected again, Blakely said she wants to continue those efforts by getting the roads repaved.

Our roads in bad shape and I want to continue cleaning up and continue getting things better. Our books are crisp. We got a brand new walking track with a levee to the back of it, and so our roads are going to be next. So if we could pass a once in a sales tax that everybody could help us pass, it will be a smooth ride through Delcambre," she said.

Blakely became Delcambre's first female mayor when she was elected in 2016. She was sworn into office in January 2017.

Blakely said she wants to continue to make Delcambre a better place to live by brining in new businesses to the area. She also hopes to see the Texaco be rebuilt bigger and better.

“We have our farmers market on every Saturday, the first Saturday of the month, which is awesome. Just working towards bringing in more revenue. We're working on a new restaurant at the Cove, so we have a lot of exciting things coming up in the next few years,” she said.

“I would just like everybody to go out and vote and if they don't have a choice, I would love to be your choice because I still want to continue making this a better place to live. We have two awesome schools and bring more people back home and we have one of the top festivals in the state of Louisiana and we’re just like a different little culture here," she continued.

Alderman Christopher Esponge

Esponge said he wants to be mayor so he can give back to the community because he loves to serve and help others.

“I love giving back to the community. The town has given back to me so much and I want to give back to them as much as possible. I want to give back to them as much as they gave back to me,” he said. 

He hopes to improve the quality of life. He shares how working in the construction industry and having a construction background can help with the water and sewer as far as talking more with the upper level people in Baton Rouge, that can help out with federal and state grants. 

“I want to improve on everything that we do have currently. If you go around town, there's a lot of residents that have left since the major storms that we received and they're leaving Delcambre and they're going to other surrounding communities. I want to improve the systems that we do have: roads, water, sewer, just quality of life here," he said.

He said he wants to do what it takes to keep residents in Delcambre.

“There's a lot of components that we have to work on, on a much higher level, like insurance costs. I mean, those are stuff that we have to fight on a state and federal level. So those are things that we can definitely work on. But quality of life here is mainly water, sewer, roads. We have great schools, so it brings the people here for the schools and we just want to keep what we have here and keep them from leaving our town," he said.

Early voting is now until Oct. 29. Election Day is Nov. 5.

You can find your voting information here. 

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