Board candidates see need for efficiency

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, October 11, 2008

The candidates for the Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners in District 3 and District 5 wholeheartedly agreed on one thing Thursday noon during a candidates forum. County government will need to operate as efficiently as possible — with limited resources — in the next few years.

The Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the open forum, directed some hard-hitting questions to District 3 candidates Tom Lee and John Lindquist and to District 5 candidates Jim Ayres and Lee Rogness.

District 3 includes several townships in southwestern Otter Tail County, including a section of southeastern Fergus Falls, the towns of Battle Lake, Underwood and Dalton and the eastern portion of Rothsay. District 5 includes seven of the eight precincts in Fergus Falls, excluding Ward 1, Precinct 2.

“The county is on an extremely tight budget, and social services funding assistance from the state has been cut back,” Lindqust said. “Money for county services is limited. The day could come when the county will have no choice but to return to the days of some gravel roads.”

Lee, the other candidate in District 3, said the new five-person county board — which will have three new members starting in January 2009 — will have a challenging balancing act. In addition to human services, Lee sees other key issues as quality of life, environmental management, economic development and health care.

Otter Tail County, larger in land size that the state of Rhode Island, has a 2008 budget of $72.1 million. Of that total, $28.2 million comes from federal and state assistance.

The two candidates for the District 5 post, Ayres and Rogness, said that sharing of services and equipment with area counties is one option while the county board faces some critical budget decisions.

“Setting priorities, working as efficiently as possible and looking for ways to cut will be necessary while dealing with county budgets in future years,” Ayres said.

Rogness said that being selective with where to spend and where not to spend will be challenging for the new county board. He added that the budget process will include taking close looks at all county staffing and services.

Transparency, a political buzz word this year, was brought up by candidate forum moderator Jacki Maethner as it relates to county government openness, communication and accountability. To that end, the candidates, moderators and those in attendance were appreciative of a group of students from Twin Oaks School, Fergus Falls, who attended Wednesday’s open forum.

Land use, and specifically issues such as preservation and development, also took center stage Thursday at the Otter Tail Power community room. Each of the four candidates agreed that long-term planning and proper zoning should come into play.

One size doesn’t fit all, they said, especially when it comes to lake lot platting in Otter Tail County which has more lakes than any other county not only in Minnesota but across the United States.

Each candidate said that the tough questions asked of them on Thursday reflects the complex issues facing Otter Tail County in 2009, and beyond. Each, in his own words, pledged to listen to constituents, look at various options relating to key issues, evaluate and come up with solutions for the betterment of Otter Tail County and its residents.

Vying for the District 1 post, which includes the Perham area, are Doug Huebsch and Douglas Ackling. The winner in the Nov. 4 general election will replace the retiring Sydney Nelson, currently the county board chairperson.

Retiring from District 3 is Dennis Mosher and retiring from District 5 is Bob Block. The other two commissioners, Everett Erickson of District 2, and Roger Froemming of District 4, are not up for reelection this year.

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