Rozenboom talks about bid for Supervisor.

Ken Rozenboom at a recent event

I want to thank Mahaska County Supervisor candidate Ken Rozenboom for taking the time to answer some questions for us. We asked him the exact same questions as we did with the other candidates in this race.

We started off by asking Ken what Mahaska County could do to entice business to move here.

Right now it seems to me that the most important thing is the Hwy 63 project. We have to be competitive with infrastructure or we won’t be serious players when business and industry are searching for locations. Also, we need to develop a plan for the SE Connector so we have better transportation access to the business park.

With the recent flooding, Emergency Management has become important to the coordination of efforts during those times, and I wanted to know what his level of support for the office.

Of course I support emergency management to a great degree. I simply don’t know how or if it’s helped the community because I have not been involved in any way with the day to day operation of emergency management. This is an area that I need to learn more about if given the opportunity to serve as Supervisor.

Again, many people have said they felt that Mahaska needs to market itself better, or develop a chamber similar to the Pow I-80 group that Poweshiek County has, should Mahaska get something similar in place?

We all use the word “community”. It probably means different things to different people. My definition of our local community is that it includes 1)Oskaloosa, 2)several smaller towns, 3) non-agricultural rural residents and 4)the agricultural sector. Four somewhat diverse groups of people, but all part of one community. It’s critical that those groups are all working together to make this community as viable, successful and attractive as we can possibly be. That means we must partner together any way we can to provide essential government services as efficiently and as effectively as possible. Beyond that, we must partner on economic development. We must find creative ways to work together for the benefit of all. An old saying comes to mind: “Live as brothers or die as fools”. No one else cares more about our community than we do. In a very real sense we are competing with all other communities for economic success. A county chamber could be part of the answer.

To go with the previous question, how will you help to improve cooperation between the County and other communities in the County?

Communication and a commitment from the county to be a willing partner. I don’t pretend to know what level of cooperation there is between the county and other communities now. What I do know is that we must have or develop a sense of “we’re all in this together”. One of the questions I try to always ask myself is: “Am I part of the problem, or am I part of the solution?”

Some have expressed their belief in “stale” leadership in elected officials, how do you intend to improve some of that?

I guess by simply bringing a new perspective. I don’t come to this believing I have all the answers. I do come to this with the intention of asking a lot of questions so we can find the answers together.