PAHOKEE, Fla. — Pahokee residents will be voting for mayor and two commissioners next week.
Mayor Keith Babb is seeking a third term in office against Vice Mayor Regina Bohlen.
Babb, a Pahokee native, has been serving as the city's mayor since 2016.
The two candidates are both focused on attracting new business to Pahokee and adding jobs to Palm Beach County's western region.
"We have struggled a lot to attract businesses in the last six years," Babb told WPTV. "However, we've had new business come into Pahokee. Mainly a lot of small businesses, but it's definitely been an incubator for larger and bigger things to come."
Babb said Pahokee is adding a major hotel to the city in the near future.
Bohlen is also passionate about job creation.
"I'm happy to announce that we have a company that's coming in to take over one of our buildings," Bohlen said. "They bought a building and they are going to start a business and that will be about 100 jobs when they're up and running."
Bohlen said she managed a real estate company in Broward County before moving to Pahokee 15 years ago.
"We are in desperate need of housing, every kind of housing," Bohlen said. "Whether it's single-family, townhomes, condos, we are in desperate need of it all."
Both candidates are acutely aware of Palm Beach County's housing crisis and want to expand the number of units available in Pahokee.
"We have two new developments that we approved," Babb said. "We need both rental and single-family homes. I think the business is going to come. We just got to continue to knock on doors."
Babb said two new housing developments are currently in the works, which will add more than 200 units to Pahokee.
There are about 2,800 registered voters in Pahokee.
Election Day is March 8 for Pahokee and 18 other Palm Beach County municipalities.
