The Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce hosted a forum where candidates for the upcoming elections where asked several questions. The community was also given an opportunity to ask the candidates questions. There were candidates for the Rocori School Board, Cold Spring City Council, and State Representative.
School Board Candidates
Lynn Schurman: Says that she will prioritize meeting the needs of every student; each student has different needs and she wants to help shape the school to work for all of them. Part of this would include redoing the strategic plan. She also says that updating and fixing the facilities is a top priority for her.
She thinks the biggest challenge facing the school is funding. "We are near the bottom of state funding." says Lynn. To help this she actively lobbies to help get more funding.
How will she address mental health problems in the school? She wants to allocate funding to mental health programs, and implement better cell phone & social media policies.
What is the school doing well? She says "We have a great school district that is sought after. And we have high activity’s enrollment."
Robin Vettleson. Wants to get more involved in the community now that her kids are aging out. She wants to prioritize growing the school along side the community. She also says she wants to help set the school kids up for future success in the community
She agreed with Lynn stating that the biggest challenge facing the school is funding.
Mental health can be helped by adding mental health education, and partnerships with counseling programs.
What is the school doing well? She says that we have great PSEO resources. Many classes have set up her daughter to do well in her studies.
Jenna Kollar. Wants to get involved to help curb bullying. She says she will prioritize academics & mental health.
She agreed with Lynn and Robin that the biggest challenge facing the school is funding.
She thinks that mental health can be helped by reducing homework as well as creating social media policies.
City Council Candidates
Robert Calaway
Robert stated that he is a Navy Vet and a retired police chief. He said he has had a long career based on service. As well as a lot of management experience.
He stated that he will support local businesses by visiting those businesses and talking with them about their needs, and finding collaborative ways the city government can help.
Robert loves the people in the community stating that it is a fun place to be.
Mike Fall
Mike has been on the council since 2021. He stated that he has a lot of life experience in leadership positions.
His priorities are creating mayor listening sessions with citizens. He wants to focus on infrastructure and increasing density downtown.
How will you support local businesses? He shops first in town hoping to lead by example. He also says that making the city look good brings in traffic.
He wants to focus on annexation to set the city up for future growth.
Mike loves how walkable Cold Spring is. He wants to focus on increasing the walkability of the community.
David Heinen who has been mayor the last 8 years, wrote in regretting that he would be unable to attend the forum in person. He says the last 8 years are a testament to his leadership. He says that he would love to stay in the mayor position to finish out several of the large projects going on currently including the new fire hall and new development going in by the school.
Doug Schmitz also wrote in and said he regretted being unable to attend, but that he would appreciate everyones vote.
State Representative District 13a
Lisa Demuth
Lisa has lived in the area for 27 years. She has served in district 13a since 2018. She wants to make sure tax dollars are not being waisted.
Regarding budget priorities, she said that after having a surplus, the state spend it all and we are now in a deficit. She wants to reduce spending and route out fraud with over half a billion in known fraud going on. She wants to allocate more funding to schools and remove unfunded mandates.
She wants to help businesses by working on mandates that help with workforce. Including affordable childcare and housing. As well as removing expensive mandates on small businesses.
How involved should the government be with businesses? She says that the government should be involved with minimum wage and OSHA, but that the government is broadly overreaching into small businesses. She says this is causing businesses to move to neighboring states.
How can the state help with mental health? She says there is a workforce shortage in the mental health sector. "Some people who desperately need care are not getting help." She says this is where the state funding can step in and bolster up this sector to make sure those that need mental health support can receive it. She says she is committed to helping find solutions.
Regarding removing tax on social security, she says this is a high priority for her, and she wants it removed as soon as possible.
Cindy Aho
She said she is running because she was asked to by her party leaders. She says she wants to compromise and negotiate to work with everyone to make things happen.
She says for budget priorities, she wants to balance wants and needs in spending.
How will she help small businesses? She wants to push for hire wages, paid medical leave, and benefits.
What roll should the government take in small businesses? She says that we have higher taxes, so those taxes should go to funding resources that can help businesses and employees.
What can the state do to help mental health? She says she has a background in social work. And says that the state is not failing at offering mental health services. She says she does not look at the negatives and thinks that people aren’t using mental health services well.
When asked about social security tax she said she disagrees with her party, and is in favor of removing tax on social security.
To see a sample ballot with all candidates visit: https://myballotmn.sos.mn.gov/
Thank you to the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce for putting on this forum!
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