Six candidates running for Board of Supervisor positions in Henry County

Blaire Barton:

1. Why did you decide to run for the position? What do you most hope to accomplish should you be elected?

I am a lifelong resident of the county and as I have learned more about county topics, I have a taken an interest in wanting to ensure our county is a good place for people to work, live and play.

2. Why do you feel you are best suited to fill the position? What experience do you have that would allow you to excel in the role?

I am not a career politician by any means. I believe my simple and humble approach is easily relatable to citizens. I am realistic about issues and can bring a fresh perspective.

3. How do you feel the potential transfer of emergency medical services to the county should be handled? What would you like to see happen moving forward?

At this point, there are not enough facts to have a position. The current supervisors are working hard on this topic with collecting the information in order to make a decision. In my opinion, we cannot sacrifice patient care and response time, with this we have to be aware of the tax burden for our citizens.

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the county any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

I would work with the department heads to determine the needs they have in order to address all areas of the county. In addition I think using some of the funds to 'market” the county would be beneficial. If we are going to continue to grow as a county, we need to further promote what we have to offer to attract and retain business and people.

Chad White:

1. Why did you decide to run for the position? What do you most hope to accomplish should you be elected?

I believe that when a person lives in a community, they should get involved in that community (local schools, government, churches, organizations). Having a law enforcement career and background, I have taken interest in local county government as a way of being involved. Before this election year I would not have been able to dedicate my full time and attention to do the business of Henry County since I was responsible for a seven county area in my career with IDOT, Bureau of Investigations. I am now eligible to retire and want to continue serving Henry County. It was planned that at this election cycle I would announce my candidacy for County Supervisor. County Supervisors are charged with preserving the rights, privileges and property of the county or of its residents and to preserve and improve the peace, safety, health, welfare, comfort and convenience of its residents. That charge is not a lot different from what a law enforcement officer does each and every duty shift. Iowa Code and the Iowa Constitution allow County Supervisors to carry out this mission for the county. In short, I want to be able to continue helping and assisting the county and county residents in this manner with issues that arise.

2. Why do you feel you are best suited to fill the position? What experience do you have that would allow you to excel in the role?

I feel my upbringing, personal demeanor, values and morals coupled with my life and career experiences, have given me good skill sets to work with people and represent Henry County and its residents. For the majority of my career in law enforcement, I have had to research issues to determine the facts and circumstances of different topics and to find the best outcome or solution. In my career I have made many professional contacts with others in different local, state and other state jurisdictions and agencies in which I will be able to call upon if needed. I have experience with financial matters as a result of my position on the board of directors of 5 Star Community Credit Union in which I currently sit. I have experience serving on other Henry County Boards and Commissions. I am presently on the Henry County Planning and Zoning, Board of Adjustment. I have served on the Henry County Pioneer Cemetery Commission and the Marion Township Trustees. I have experience in jail and inmate incarceration issues. I am familiar with the elected and appointed Henry County Department heads and many of the county employees in the different departments. I don't claim to know everything about everything but willing to listen and learn from those that do know.

3. How do you feel the potential transfer of emergency medical services to the county should be handled? What would you like to see happen moving forward?

I believe the community needs to have a professional, reliable, and efficient EMS /ambulance service available to the citizens of the county. With that said I am not in favor of a private ambulance service. It is my understanding that Henry County Health Center (HCHC) is not able to continue offering this service as a result of insufficient Medicare reimbursements. Taking the EMS on as a Henry County entity is a very large and complex operation. Everything from ambulance vehicles, ambulance equipment, employee wages, employee benefits, employee training and certification and housing the service headquarters (just to name a few), are very important and need to be part of the decision. Service funding is a concern. The majority of the emergency calls are based in the Mount Pleasant Zip code area. Could the ambulance service be partially funded through Mount Pleasant municipal funding? Should revenue be levied against all Henry County residences / homes? Why would farm ground / property be taxed for an ambulance service? This merge would be a very expensive operation in which Henry County does not presently have a funding source. Would this service be combined with an existing county department or become a new department? Will EMS become an Iowa Essential Service through Iowa law? Many questions exist before definite answers can be made.

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the county any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

Hypothetically if Henry County were to receive a $1,000,000 dollar grant at this time, I would strongly consider using a portion of that money to help implement the EMS (Ambulance Service) service as a Henry County entity. The remaining portion would be set up as a reserve fund to be used as a rainy-day fund.

Debra Savage:

1. Why did you decide to run for the position? What do you most hope to accomplish should you be elected?

I grew up with the values of serving and helping others. That upbringing has lead me to serve in numerous boards and committees on both the local and state level. I am a firm believer in term limits for any position as it gives new, perhaps younger, individuals a chance to bring new ideas, thoughts and experiences to the table. So, after serving two terms each on the Mt. Pleasant School Board and the Mt. Pleasant City Council I have been searching for another way in which to serve my community. I thought this would be a good position to run for to serve not just Mt. Pleasant, but the whole county. I am basically retired, have decreased the number of areas that I still serve on and am prepared to put my energy into the county position.

If elected I would hope to provide reasonable tax structure based on needs, necessity and income of the county as a whole. Having owned several businesses, agricultural land and other real estate, I know taxes are necessary but not particularly appreciated by the public. hey do, however, make it possible to afford all the necessities that a county is responsible for. As a property owner I would like to enact focused budgeting, fair taxation and an equitable portioning of resources that those taxes afford.

Being very important to me, I will exhibit a sincere interest and concern for the entire county as a supervisor and become an advocate for the people of each individual Henry County community. I would have a goal of providing equitable funding to each of the communities and their related activities as needed and as possible and would get to know the individuals that make up each community.

2. Why do you feel you are best suited to fill the position? What experience do you have that would allow you to excel in the role?

I have served on numerous boards and committees in Mt. Pleasant and at the state level that have prepared me for this next level position. I have acquired skills in organization, budgeting, dealing with numerous and varied individuals - both employees and constituents, have presided over large meetings and done much public speaking. Some of the groups include: Habitat for Humanity (2 terms), The Fellowship Cup (2 terms) where I was instrumental in beginning the Quarter Maybe More Store, Mt. Pleasant Historic Preservation Commission for 25 years and the original Diversity Commission. I recently was the co-chair for an International Convention of Friends Women where we hosted 300 individuals from literally all over the world. I have been the president of numerous local organizations and continue to be still. The two boards that prepared me most for being a Supervisor in this county were the two terms each on Mt. Pleasant School Board and the Mt. Pleasant City Council. This was valuable experience for how a city and one of its biggest employers, the school district, operate.

I believe other life experiences have also prepared me for this such as - experience in education (I taught Nursing at IWU for 8 years and was the History Day coordinator for the public school system taking several youth to the national competition in Washington, D.C.), jobs in health care (I ran a private practice with my husband for 45 years), owning agricultural land, (we own and operate two farms - one has been in my husband's family for 160 years) involvement in spiritual care (I taught this is IWC to senior nursing students and pastored locally for 10 years) and currently owning and restoring older buildings into usable apartments and business space. These areas of opportunity have provided me with the knowledge and expertise needed to serve as the next Henry County Supervisor. I have also spent almost 10 years as the Chair of the Iowa Yearly Meeting Trustees Board overseeing 35 churches in Iowa. I spent several years, following September 11 and the Iraq War, on the Iowa Crisis team (under both Governors Brandstad and Vilsack) which trained me for significant emergencies where additional essential workers might be needed anywhere in the world. I also spent time in Cuba on a good will mission learning much about Third World countries and very much appreciating the USA. I was to go to Africa this summer but that has been canceled due to the COVID-19.

3. How do you feel the potential transfer of emergency medical services to the county should be handled? What would you like to see happen moving forward?

I would hope to make possible a county owned emergency health service that can continue to serve the entire county with the same level of excellence that it always has. If the hospital is endangered by continuing to own the ambulance service, and if a collaborative effort is not possible, then unless we want an outside entity trying to meet our emergency needs, it is of paramount importance and a necessity for the supervisors to undertake. I have much experience in this area and so would be interested in seeing it achieved. Besides acute care nursing, teaching nursing and working for an internist/cardiologist for the past 40 years I have also coded all emergency medicine and acute care services from Dr. Savage's office. I am familiar, not only with general and crisis type coding, but I also worked directly with virtually all insurance companies that currently exist including Medicare and Medicaid.

With COVID, we have been reminded of just how essential the health care system is and how fragile. EMS is necessary if we hope to maintain a viable health care system both because in helping the hospital remain solvent but also to prevent more serious illness or injury results when the individual could not be easily or quickly transported. Preference would have been to have the state pass the legislation to make it an essential service so that the hospital could continue to run the ambulance with adequate reimbursement and perhaps a profit. My husband and I, when we first came back to Mt. Pleasant in 1976, began an effort to bring the Red Cross Association back to the area and then proceeded to begin an initiative for CPR to be taught and mandated at the hospital. We got a group of people together including hospital employees and pharmacy employees and did fundraising - one being a competitive basketball game where proceeds went to buy the first Resusi-Annie and baby doll needed to facilitate CPR classes. I worked in Intensive and Coronary Care, taught critical care and was on the Iowa Crisis team during September 11th and the Iraq War and Fred was an internist with additional certification in Cardio-Pulmonary.

With a broad health care background I obviously feel strongly that we must keep emergency care and ambulances on the forefront of our overall health care system. I cannot imagine that people new to the community would want to locate where there are not excellent emergency services available in the event of crisis outside the hospital. If it cannot be possible for the hospital to maintain it then we must find a collaborative way to make it happen at the county level. I am positioned, based on past and current experiences, to help Supervisors with this.

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the county any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

If I were given a million dollars I would do the following:

First, I would apportion it based on the population of the county (20,067 population divided by $1,000,000 = roughly $50.00 per person by looking at each town in the county's population.

This money would be given to the individual communities with no strings attached - only that each community use it in the manner that would be most beneficial to their community. As I attended several city council meetings of local communities, a few said their most pressing need was how to get older, dilapidated buildings torn down and removed. This would be a great use for these communities! Each of the communities know their own needs better than I possibly could and I would love to see what creative uses might come about.

The funds that are left from the original 1 million would be given to the county to be used to defray some expenses of the new ambulance arrangement. This would benefit the entire county - each town and individual who might live outside of the town. It would be specified to be used to make the system operate in much the same way as it now does. It would be a start and could help defray insurance expenses, remodeling if needed, employee needs or even, as we now know is needed, stockpiling PPE equipment. The only specification is that it be spent on the ambulance health care agenda.

If it were possible, that is, if the money were mine to give and not the supervisors as a whole board, I would ask that the ambulance funds be given in honor of Dr. Alfred Savage who spent 45 years in private practice constantly innovating to make our hospital care and acute care the best it could be by treating each one in his path equitably and excellently.

Kat Zeglen:

1. Why did you decide to run for the position? What do you most hope to accomplish should you be elected?

I am running for Supervisor because I have a vision for our county. I feel we need to have a younger generation begin to take interest so that we may grow our county through innovative ideas and projects that will attract younger families into our communities. The way to grow the tax base is to get new blood to build and move into our county. We need to take an active interest in what is making other counties grow, and what is attracting younger homeowners and families want to move into the counties that they do - to put us into contention for them moving here.

I have the desire to enhance county attractions like trail systems, promote parks and conservation areas, and I want to help find state funding to grow our tourism attractions and promote what we currently have and do so very well here in Henry County.

Should I be elected to the Board of Supervisors, I hope to work toward county attractions such as a trail system, splash pads, and family friendly attractions.

I also believe we need to work hard with developers, realtors, and investors on looking toward affordable housing in Henry County, and how to grow our housing shortage with affordable housing and housing developments. If we were able to work on more county housing developments, it would increase the tax base which is where county funding comes from. We could work on solving the housing shortage, entice people with our beautiful developments, county attractions, and perhaps make the job of economic development easier to attract and entice businesses and laborers.

2. Why do you feel you are best suited to fill the position? What experience do you have that would allow you to excel in the role?

I think the race I am running has brought to the forefront the trend that we have in Henry County, and I think the constituents are surprised at the homogenous nature of our current board and previous boards. They tend to be all males, usually of retirement age. If you take a look at our other governing bodies around Henry County, they are much more diverse in age and gender, which creates a healthier dialogue in terms of points of view, perspectives, and life experiences. The fact that I am not directly in Mt. Pleasant or within a couple miles has been a high point I have found with constituents. I live in the north end of the county in Olds.

What also adds to my qualifications over most of my opponents is the time I have invested into learning the ins and outs of county government by attending meetings and asking questions. I started routinely attending their meetings in October of 2018. I was lucky enough to sit through two full years of budget requests, and the budget process. I am also on your county conservation board, so I have firsthand knowledge of budgeting at the county level. Since that is job one as supervisors, I can't imagine coming in with no knowledge. It is such a complex process, and I have so very much to learn, but at least I have a head start. I announced my bid for candidacy last August 2019, but began preparing in October of 2018 for the June 2, 2020 primary.

Some of the boards and committees I have been active in here in Henry County:

I was appointed and currently sit on The Henry County Conservation Board, I have sat on the Board for Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, Business & Professional Women, Mt. Pleasant and Waco Athletic Booster Boards, City Committees, TTT, Women 4 Women, West Side Mother's Club, The HCHC Foundation Fundraiser Committee, Community Action Advisory Board, Willing Workers, Youth Group Leader, and so much more over the years. I am a lifelong community volunteer.

I am familiar with the process of working on boards and have a degree in communications. I know how to effectively listen and lead, and how to be a team player. I spent years working at KILJ learning so much about our community, from there I met and got the pleasure of taking care of Henry County by working in Dr. Zielinksi's office, and now I get the pleasure of welcoming people into the county I love by working for our counties largest tourism event at Midwest Old Threshers.

3. How do you feel the potential transfer of emergency medical services to the county should be handled? What would you like to see happen moving forward?

I believe the county needs EMS. With that being said, in my perfect world the hospital would keep the ambulance services there, but allow the county to use discretionary funds for EMS, and they would work together to keep it at the hospital, but the county funds would offset the losses. It could potentially be the most cost effective way and still be a win-win for everyone. The hospital would still have use of the ambulance and not have to pay for transport whether it be from Henry County or someone else, they would be able to use the expertise of the EMT's in the ER when needed, the county would not have to worry about cost of housing the service, garage storage, electricity, water, medical record storage, and all the costs that go along with starting a new county service. In my mind I would love for that to be an option to be explored at greater length. I would like to think that this could be a cost effective way to make this work for the taxpayers and citizens of Henry County at the least expense to them.

What I do know is that regardless of how we do it, this will come at a cost to the taxpayers. Whether it be a penny or a dollar or anywhere in between, I feel that since the county does not sit on a surplus of money, the taxpayers need to be educated on the different expenses and what those expenses will be. It is hard to just keep taxing the citizens we pledge to serve, however, I do want to make sure before anyone says no- they realize at what cost that will come. I am 47 years old and sadly have needed that ambulance service for myself twice. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not have it available for my aging parents or my family. But I also am not in the position to say just because I can afford it you can afford it. What I do know is that when it comes to prioritizing monthly expenses, especially as we all are aging, I want people to educate themselves on not just financial expense, but on peace of mind and necessity should the time come for them to possibly need this service. This is not something anyone in this county should take lightly, and I feel it is a service we all have taken for granted. Now that it can be a choice for us, I encourage everyone to be proactive and make a choice that is good for their family, because with our choices come consequences. I worked in health care, we all know sometimes seconds or minutes are the difference between life and death, and we will need to live with the choices we make.

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the county any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

I don't have a wish list. I think because I took the time to sit through the budget requests and budget meetings, I saw firsthand how the funds are disbursed-some of which are state mandated - so it is easy to see how counties, like many taxpayers -live on a tight budget. This money would be such a wonderful addition to the General Basic Fund as a cushion, I would take this large grant and build the county coffers so that when other issues arise such as for instance EMS services, the tax burden would lie less on county tax payers and EVERYONE would benefit from its use.

Greg Moeller (Incumbent):

1. Why did you decide to run for the position? What do you most hope to accomplish should you be elected?

After being asked by several residents to run for county supervisor, I decided to seek election in 2012. I am seeking my third term. As a supervisor my goal is to maintain fiscal responsibility with county tax dollars.

2. Why do you feel you are best suited to fill the position? What experience do you have that would allow you to excel in the role?

Having served as a county supervisor, I have always put the needs and interests of this county first. I listen and evaluate all sides of an issue before making a decision, making sure it is in the best interest of our taxpayers.

3. How do you feel the potential transfer of emergency medical services to the county should be handled? What would you like to see happen moving forward?

I feel that EMS is a necessary service for Henry County. Transferring EMS to county government will help Henry County Health Center's financial bottom line due to reimbursement levels from Medicare, Medicaid and private and commercial insurance companies. This transfer would be a positive economic impact to HCHC, yet a transfer of cost would be shifted to the taxpayers.

4. If you received $1 million grant to use for the county any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

1. Apply the funds for startup costs for the EMS service.

2. Incentives for economic development/job creation.

Democratic Candidates

David Beaber:

1. Why did you decide to run for the position? What do you most hope to accomplish should you be elected?

I decided to run for Henry County Supervisor to stand up for what all of the taxpayers of Henry County want and expect from our Board of Supervisors. If elected, I would like to see economic development and economic growth throughout the entire county.

2. Why do you feel you are best suited to fill the position? What experience do you have that would allow you to excel in the role?

As a lifetime resident of Henry County, I am going to be a strong listener and return legitimate problems and concerns from each township (one per month) back to the board for discussion.

3. How do you feel the potential transfer of emergency medical services to the county should be handled? What would you like to see happen moving forward?

I will stand by Henry County assuming control of the ambulance service. This will assist the hospital's funding while privatizing ambulance service could restrict patients from getting the medical care they require.

4. If you received $1 million grant to use for the county any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

If I were handed a million dollar grant, I would spend the entire amount developing recreation areas by adding horseback riding, hunting, and ATV trails. Currently, our boat ramps are in desperate need of repair and maintenance, so I would also improve the areas already owned by the county to enhance camping, boating, and fishing.