The Star Herald asked candidates facing a primary election on Aug. 9 five questions to inform readers about themselves.
The five questions are:
1.) Community involvement
2.) Employment, education and family
3.) What made you decide to seek election/reelection to the County Board of Commissioners?
4.) How do you view the role of a commissioner in your community?
5.) What makes you the best candidate for the job?
Kyle Hemme/lives in Denver Township and is running for the open District 1 county commissioner seat.
1.) I am a supervisor for Denver Township. I served as chairman for Zion Lutheran Church in Hardwick, Rock County Extension Committee, and I participate with the Rock County Corn and Soybean Growers Association.
2.) I graduated from Luverne High School in 1995, after which I attended the University of Minnesota, Morris, for one year. I graduated from Southeast Technical Institute in 1999 with a diesel technology degree. I participated in Minnesota Agricultural and Rural Leadership, graduating in 2016. I currently farm full time with my parents west of Hardwick. I am married to Mica and we have four children, Tori (11), Kaleb (9), Ashlyn (3) and Micaela (16 months).
3.) I have a desire to serve my community. I ran four years ago and lost a close race, and I still desire to fill the position of commissioner. I am thoughtful in the decisions that I come to while serving on boards. I listen to all sides and try to understand why someone may or may not have an issue with the decision that may be rendered. We need to have respect for everyone’s opinion. However, we must also have accountability in the system and not just have a yes or no answer. Sometimes we need to do some research ourselves and not just take people’s word for fact. I love being in this county and I want to help mold it for the future that we can all be proud of.
4.) A commissioner is someone who should be knowledgeable on a variety of subjects. They should also know when to use the resources around them. We have vast resources in this county that we should be consulting; however, we should double-check for accurate information. As a commissioner we should remember whom we represent and what those constituents want from us. Also a lot of the time commissioners are the first call from a resident. If we don’t know the answer to their question or comment, we should put them in touch with the right person that can answer their concerns the best.
5.) I feel I am the best candidate for this job because of my recent experiences with the different organizations that I am with. I am definitely concerned with representing the rural northern and eastern tiers of the county. District 1 has the largest area to represent in the county, so there are some struggles to make sure that the entire district would be represented accurately. I believe that my recent experiences in Denver Township have prepared me for the commissioner position, especially with road and government issues. I also believe that we owe it to the people of the county to ensure that we are getting the best bang for our dollar, meaning that we need to look at contracts individually and approve or disapprove them based on past performance. We can’t just approve something just because we have always done it a certain way.
Farming information or facts aren’t always the same from year to year, and therefore you need to be flexible and be prepared to attack an issue a different way to ensure that you are getting the best possible outcome for your decision, I feel that you need to use this same process with holding the commissioner job. We also need to remember that agriculture is the backbone for our economy in Rock County, and the county regulations should support that.
I would like to say thank you to everyone for all the support I have received.