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There are races in the Luverne City Council Ward 2 election and in the Minnesota House of Representatives District 21A election.
To assist voters in their General Election choices, The Star Herald reached out to the candidates with questions for them to respond to with the intent to be published.
City Council candidates answered the questions, “Why are you the best candidate for Ward 2 City Council?” and “If elected, what would be your top three priorities and why?”
They were directed to respond to these questions, plus provide biographical information about themselves in 750 words or less.
Those responses are below.
On the opposite page, Minnesota House candidates were asked to provide their top three priorities and also answer the question, “What specifically will you do to improve the partisan divide and ensure that legislative responsibilities are completed within a normal session timeline?”
The two city candidates and two state candidates will face each other in a televised forum on Thursday, Oct. 20, starting at 2 p.m. in Luverne City Hall council chambers.
Meanwhile, the 18 candidates seeking election to five seats on the Luverne School Board have been video-interviewed and those can be found on the Star Herald website, www.star-herald.com. No subscription is necessary to view them.
Marlin 'Mert' Kracht, candidate for Luverne City Council
What do you currently do for a living and who are your wife and family?
I own and operate Mert’s Machine and Repair, a welding and general machine shop in Luverne. We have been in business for 14 years. I have lived in Luverne for 12 years with my wife, Bobbi, and our six children, Trevor, Jackson, Kacie, Cade, Allie and Caleb.
Why are you the best candidate for Ward 2 City Council?
I am the best candidate for city council because of what I have done for a living for the past 30 years, and how I grew up. People bring problems to me, and I come up with ways to solve the problems by listening to what they want. I do it with hard work and common sense, not just throwing money at it. I was raised on a 200-acre farm in the 1980s. I learned how to get things done by working together and sharing ideas.
If elected, what would be your top three priorities and why?
My top priority is to ask the hard questions. Why are we spending this money on whatever it may be? Has anyone looked into what this will bring to our city by spending this money? Do we need this or do we just want it? Is this what the taxpayers of Luverne support? Or does it just benefit a certain few of our population?
We need to get more businesses with good paying jobs into Luverne, as well as keeping the existing businesses here. The goal is to grow the town. If the residents of Luverne are driving to another city every day for work, they are spending their money there, not here. When considering trying to get a company to build in Luverne, the question no one seems to ask themselves is, “Would you work there?”
We have more equipment and personnel than cities twice our population. Yet we hire out a good deal of the work that has to be done. I think we have a beautiful town. I also think we can have a beautiful town by using hard work and common sense.
Kevin Aaker (incumbent) Candidate for Luverne City Council
What do you currently do for a living and who are your wife and family?
I am majority owner of Luverne Body Shop. Mary, my wife, and I have two children and six grandchildren from 2 months old through 21 years old. Our daughter and her family live here in Luverne, and my son and his family live in Roseville, Minnesota.
Why are you the best candidate for Ward 2 City Council?
While I am running for Ward 2 I keep the interests of all citizens of Luverne in mind when making decisions. We have a city with its eye on caring for what we have while preparing for the future. There are many small cities that have given up and are just trying to get by.
That’s not our city. We have banded together and jumped in to start building a city that people want to live in.
I am working hard to set in place budgets that plan for replacement of equipment and facilities so as not to overburden citizens in any given year that something expensive needs replacement or repair.
I have always been goal-driven, not just for this year and a couple years in the future. I believe in planning out as far as 40 to 50 years. This is the only way to have a chance at having the water, sewer, power and everything else a city needs to provide a quality of life that draws people to live in the community.
I use the facts that are available to make decisions in the best interest of residents. Sometimes it may seem that nothing is happening even though the background research is going on to make the best decisions for Luverne’s future.
There are countless stories of towns that rushed into decisions that landed a city in trouble or cities that were not willing to plan now for needs of the future and pay ahead so that we are not leaving a problem for our children to deal with that we could have dealt with when the cost was more reasonable in the long run.
I want to help build a city that our children not only want to return to as adults but a city that has the infrastructure, housing, day care and employment opportunities that allow them to come home and thrive.
If elected, what would be your top three priorities and why?
The three projects I would like to focus on in the future are day care, housing across a wide range of affordability, and laying the groundwork for growth into the future.
Our in-home day care providers are finding it increasingly difficult to care for our children and earn a reasonable living. Many have left the profession, and the lack of day care is affecting families and employers alike.
We have been working on this issue for years, laying the groundwork and researching options and are now at a point where we are close to having a privately operated day care center in a city-owned building.
Additionally, we have been working with local entities and county, state and even federal representatives to find ways to make day care affordable and practical.
For housing, I’d make it a priority to cooperate with developers as well as state and federal entities to provide affordable housing in this area for all who work here and want to make a life here.
For future growth, I will continue to press for development of all infrastructure needed for industrial and business development.
This is the broadest of the three topics. It entails the next steps to have more of our industrial park ready when a company wants to build in Luverne.
Additionally, we need to make sure we have dependable utilities to support the additional needs for them. Then we need to have the people available who want to work and have the skills to produce the products and services needed for these companies.
We are blessed to live in a city with citizens who are not afraid to do what needs to be done for our city to provide a place to thrive. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard, “Luverne is amazing. When they see something that needs to be done, it gets done!”