Nicollet County Board features four contested races on ballot
Sep. 8—ST. PETER — The race is on for the Nicollet County Board candidates in four commissioner contests on the general election ballot.
From health care, road projects and an aging workforce, a variety of topics are on candidates' minds as they prepare for the Nov. 8 election.
Early voting, including mail-in balloting or in-person voting, starts Sept. 23.
DISTRICT 1Incumbent Marie Dranttel and social worker Jennifer Andrashko were winners in the August primary election and now advance to the general election for the District 1 Nicollet County Board seat.
Dranttel
Dranttel was first elected to the seat in November 2010.
She is a lifelong resident of Nicollet County and is a certified public accountant in St. Peter who has had her own practice in downtown for about 30 years.
Dranttel has said one of the biggest challenges now facing Nicollet County is the aging workforce.
She also touched on the county's efforts and goals to help recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and noted the county's drainage projects as another priority.
Andrashko
Andrashko has more than 20 years of experience as a social worker and lives on the north side of St. Peter with her two daughters.
She has testified in state and federal hearings on issues related to rural mental health care, is a Humphrey policy fellow alumni and is more recently a committee member on the Minnesota Maternal Mortality Review Committee within the state's health department.
Andrashko has said one of the issues facing the county right now is mental health care.
She also highlighted priorities such as funding for roads, bridges and water storage, issues related to equity and expanding broadband access.
District 1 encompasses Lake Prairie Township, New Sweden Township, Traverse Township and St. Peter Ward 1 Precinct 1.
DISTRICT 2
Incumbent Terry Morrow faces challenger David McGuire for the two-year term.
MorrowMorrow was first elected to the District 2 seat in 2018 and is finishing his first term of four years.
He first moved to town in the mid 1990s when he began working as a professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, where he was employed for 18 years.
During that time, he worked on local St. Peter commissions and eventually ran for the St. Peter School Board where he would serve as chair.
In 2006, Morrow was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and served on a number of committees from agriculture and transportation to education.
He said his time on the board so far has been largely defined by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Counties provide significant public health support, and Nicollet County was no different. In fact, the Nicollet County staff were leaders," he said.
Now, as he runs for a two-year term, Morrow said he's looking at more immediate priorities.
"Some priorities I set in my first run and in my time in the Legislature included completing Highway 14 to New Ulm, and now that project is underway. We've had the groundbreaking. We've made significant strides. So I hope to be able to join others in completing that project," he said.
He said other priorities of his include expanding broadband access in unserved and underserved areas of the county.
Some of the biggest challenges he said facing the county right now include continuing work on maintaining roads and bridges and paying attention to ongoing public health matters.
McGuire
David McGuire is no stranger to having his name on the ballot; he's run for the St. Peter City Council at least 10 times.
McGuire has also served as a member of the St. Peter Heritage Preservation Commission for two terms.
He decided to run for the board in part, he said, to give voters a choice.
"I think it's good to have two people running," he said. "I'd like to give back to the community and I think I can do the job if I'm able to get elected."
McGuire said one of his biggest priorities if elected is finishing road construction projects.
"Road construction, that needs to be done. I'm in favor of using sales tax to pay for county projects, because St. Peter did that for funding the new fire station and that went very well," he said.
He added that he also wants to expand transit to serve the entire county and work with neighboring counties.
District 2 encompasses Bernadotte Township, Brighton Township, Granby Township, Oshawa Township and St. Peter Ward 2 Precinct 1 S.
DISTRICT 4
North Mankato mayor Mark Dehen challenges Thomas Hagen for the two-year term. The seat does not have an incumbent.
Mark Dehen
North Mankato mayor Mark Dehen has lived in the city he represents since 1965 and has been a practicing chiropractor since 1987. He's held the title of mayor for 12 years.
He said he decided to run for the board to develop collaborative efforts between the city of North Mankato and the county.
"I'd like to pursue those and see if we can continue to benefit the citizens of both North Mankato and the county at-large in these more interesting economic times," he said.
Dehen said one of his priorities would be to create a transparent budget and control costs, adding that health care is also something he's paying attention to.
"The county's budget is basically divided between health care, law enforcement and infrastructure, health care being the largest piece of the budget. That's only going to be an ongoing need, especially as economic times get tighter and obviously more people using the health care safety net both for physical care and mental health issues, so I think that's an area that's going to need some ongoing attention and supervision, having been a health care provider for 36-plus years now," he said.
Thomas P. Hagen
Hagen, who decided to run for the board in part to challenge Dehen, is also running on a sustainability platform.
Hagen, who is a self-described "citizen watchdog," has attended nearly every North Mankato City Council meeting for the last eight years.
He's lived in Nicollet County for 50 years and has a background working with cities and boards.
He has served as a board member of both the Blue Earth County and Nicollet County historical societies and served on the park board in North Mankato.
Hagen has also served an internship in Congress, developed property in North Mankato and taught high school for 30 years.
He said his platform largely revolves around sustainability, adding that local farmers are feeling the effects of recent drought.
"I think we all see the changes that are taking place not only in the world, but even locally," he said. "So we need to do some long-term planning as to how we're going to deal with some of the changes that probably climate change is going to bring to us."
Hagen said other issues facing the county include maintaining a stable tax base, maintaining county services and working with an aging population.
District 4 encompasses North Mankato Precincts 3, 5 and 6.
DISTRICT 5
Incumbent John Luepke challenges Kurt Zins for the four-year term.
John Luepke
Luepke has served on the County Board for 5 1/2 years.
He said serving the constituents is what inspires him to run again.
Luepke has a largely agricultural background, having farmed his whole life. He has also served as the director for both the Nicollet/Sibley County Corn and Soybean Growers and the Minnesota Corn Growers and worked at 3M in New Ulm for 35 years.
While serving on the board, he said he wants to "try and keep the burden as low on the taxpayers as we can."
Kurt Zins
Zins is a lifelong Nicollet County resident who co-owns Zins Inc., a farm equipment repair business. He's previously served on the Nicollet City Council and spent 21 years on the Nicollet Fire Department as a volunteer fireman.
He said some of his goals as board member would be to increase transparency and save taxpayers money.
"I've witnessed over some years here where the county maybe hasn't spent their money in the most fiscally conservative manner, and I want to be a watchdog for that," he said. "We're kind of in some inflationary times. I know that as costs go up, it's going to be the desire to want to increase the county revenue to offset some of those costs. I would like to take a different approach. I would like to see where we can save money and try not to throw that burden back on the taxpayer."
District 5 encompasses Belgrade Township, Courtland Township, Lafayette Township, Nicollet Township, Ridgely Township, West Newton Township, the city of Courtland, the city of Lafayette, the city of Nicollet, North Mankato Precinct 7 and Mankato Precinct 99.
DISTRICT 3
Incumbent Jack Kolars is running for reelection in an uncontested race.
District 3 encompasses North Mankato Precincts 1, 2 and 4.
