Jefferson County Supervisor candidates participate in Farm Bureau forum

FAIRFIELD – The three candidates vying for two open positions on the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors participated in a forum Monday night hosted by Jefferson County Farm Bureau.

The forum, held Sept. 30 in the Cambridge Building at Jefferson County Fairgrounds, gave the three candidates a chance to talk about their experience and how they would address the challenges facing the county. Dee Sandquist, a Republican, is seeking her third four-year term on the board. Democrat Susie Drish is seeking her second term, and Republican challenger Joe Ledger is seeking his first term. Voters in the county will elect two of these three candidates to the board of supervisors.

During their introductory remarks, each candidate spoke about their background, with Drish mentioning her 39 years as an employment and training specialist, while Sandquist spoke about moving back to the area to manage the family farm after being an entrepreneur in the Pacific Northwest, and Ledger emphasized his 49 years as a farmer including his tenure as a lobbyist on behalf of Farm Bureau both in Des Moines and in Washington, D.C.

When asked what they believed to be the biggest challenge facing the county, all three of them mentioned the budget in their answer. Ledger said that, though he’s not on the board, he’s been attending its meetings for the last year and a half, and he sees the crunch the county is under.

“To avoid raising taxes, we have to cut, cut, cut,” he said.

Sandquist said that the county has been cutting its budget, though it had to increase it substantially last year because the county took on the responsibility of running the ambulance service, which was previously privately-run and overseen by representatives from the county, city and health center. Sandquist said their relationship with the last two ambulance firms “ended in lawsuits,” so the supervisors saw the need to take on the service, which she said was a good idea. At the same time, she acknowledged growing pains in the ambulance service’s first year as a county-run entity, like a low rate of reimbursement.

Drish commented that acquiring the First National Bank building, now the ambulance base, was done with money from the American Rescue Plan Act, but the county subsequently had to spend money to renovate it. She added that she’s been pleased with the changes at the ambulance the past couple of months since the supervisors hired new ambulance director Joshua Hemminger on Aug. 1.

The candidates returned to talking about the ambulance service in a later question that was about whether they felt the ambulance responds to calls in a timely manner. Drish said yes, she believes the ambulance crews are doing a good job responding, and credited the new leadership. Ledger said he felt the same way, and that he was impressed with Hemminger’s willingness to stop and talk to any person about ambulance operations. Sandquist said she remembers a few years ago when she used to get complaints about the ambulance service’s response times, but not so much now. She said the ambulance responded to 1,700 calls in its first 12 months as a county entity.

On the subject of upcoming infrastructure and capital improvement projects they foresaw in the next five years, Ledger spoke about certain bridges that will need to be replaced, including a major project to replace a bridge between Fairfield and Libertyville. Sandquist said the county will need to start planning to purchase an ambulance since it takes two to three years for an order to be fulfilled, and the last ambulance cost $263,000.

The candidates were asked how they would improve secondary roads in the county. Sandquist said one cost-saving measure they’ve pursued on roads like Nutmeg Avenue is base stabilization, which is cheaper than paving. Drish said the county has 700 miles of gravel roads to care for, and the county’s engineer DeWayne Heintz has increased the amount of rock spread on them. Ledger said he likes the base stabilization method the county has pursued, and added that the new county-owned dump trucks should help.

One question was about whether the candidates supported widening gravel roads to accommodate today’s large farm implements. Sandquist said it was worth looking into because the state’s gravel road guidelines have not been changed in 50 years. However, she added that widening them would take money, and noted that gravel roads get wider naturally over time as motorists use them and flatten them. Drish said gravel roads should accommodate the needs of farmers.

“They have the right to move their product,” she said.

Ledger said motorists should be mindful of sharing the road with combines and tractors, but added that any attempt to widen the county’s gravel roads would need to come from the state legislature.

The subject of property rights came up, and all the candidates took a strong stand for the rights of landowners. Drish and Sandquist spoke about the wind ordinance the supervisors recently passed, which established that wind turbines could not be built within half a mile of an occupied structure. Drish acknowledged that the ordinance was strict, and was intended to accommodate residents in the northwest part of Jefferson County who were worried about a proposed wind farm going up near their homes. Ledger mentioned that he fought for the rights of farmers against eminent domain during his tenure with Farm Bureau.

Jefferson County voters will be asked if they wish to support a new property tax levy for emergency medical services on Nov. 5, which would be 75 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation. In an effort to garner the public’s support, the supervisors have tried to assuage concerns about a new tax by arguing that residents will actually see their taxes decrease by 32 cents per $1,000 of valuation because of other levies that are being cut $1.07 per $1,000 valuation.

The candidates were asked how the county would be affected if the EMS ballot measure failed. Ledger said the county has to have that EMS levy.

“EMS has to pass, because when you call 911, it’s a life-threatening ordeal,” he said.

The candidates were asked about their goals over the next four years if elected, and Drish said that she believes there’s still parts of the county’s budget that can be trimmed. She’s also hoping to see more progress on expanding rural broadband.

When asked for ways to get more input from citizens, Sandquist spoke about the ARPA money that went into purchasing equipment to hold the supervisors’ meetings over Zoom, which allows residents to participate in the meeting remotely. The meetings are recorded and uploaded to the Fairfield Media Center’s YouTube page so they can be watched at any time.

Voters will select two of these candidates to the board on Nov. 5.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com