Krutzfeldt Sounds Off On Local Issues
Oskaloosa Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt at a recent proclamation signing
Oskaloosa, Iowa- The City of Oskaloosa will be holding their municipal elections on November 8th of this year. The Mayor, 2nd ward City Council Member, 4th ward City Council Member, and one At-Large City Council Member positions will be listed on the ballot this year. Only one race is contested, that one being the race for the At-Large seat. The seat is open as incumbent Lori Smith is not seeking re-election.
Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt is running unopposed for re-election. Krutzfeldt was first elected Mayor in 2009 and being appointed to serve as Mayor when former Mayor Dave Dixon resigned to become the City Attorney. Osky News sat down with Krutzfeldt last Friday.
Our first question to the Mayor was why he had chosen to run for re-election. “I’ve got a lot of passion for Oskaloosa. I’ve been involved with the City Council for a number of years and a number of terms, and I see a lot of opportunity that Oskaloosa is a vibrant community. It has a lot of the qualities going forward that people raising families want. And so I enjoy being part of that and helping it to grow,” Krutzfeldt said.
Our next question was what direction and vision he sees for Oskaloosa and how would we achieve it. “The vision I have for Oskaloosa is to become even more vibrant and even more dynamic as it goes forward,” Krutzfeldt said.
Krutzfeldt continued. “We’re going to get that down through a philosophy of being friendly to the people in town, welcoming to business that gives us the economic base to do it,…and then also paying attention to the culture of the City as well. We want it to be as diverse and exciting as folks want it to be.”
Next, we asked the Mayor what he thought was the biggest challenge facing Oskaloosa. ““I’d say the biggest challenge is in the economic development area,” Krutzfeldt said.
“We have a strong mainstreet, and so we’re doing the right things as far as I’m concerned to nurture the businesses we have. Economic development is very challenging in this current economic environment. What we’re looking for is to development the homegrown businesses first, treat them right, and then also encourage our own population to shop local instead as best we can,” Krutzfeldt also said.
Our next question dealt with the number of vacancies on various boards and commissions. We asked the Mayor how he planned to entice people to apply for these boards and commissions. “When I go into meetings, and I have a lot of them throughout any given week, I’m always looking at the people across the table from me wondering that a. are they doing a good job with what they’re doing now but also do they have the potential to grow into something else. And so with those openings in mind, I’m always looking, always, to see if there’s someone who wouldn’t be a good candidate to grow into those positions,” Krutzfeldt said.
We next asked the Mayor what he would recommend the City do to entice more businesses to open their doors in Oskaloosa. “Well you start with an attitude of shopping local first. I think that businesses who are able to offer what people want locally, will get the business.”
Krutzfeldt continued. “They may have to earn it, but they’ll get the business. When the state organization, mainstreet, comes to Oskaloosa, the conversations I have with them, they tell me ‘yeah you’re doing almost all the right things.’ The things they would like to see more of though would be to have the downtown stay open a couple more hours later. That when people get done with their workday, they come back to Oskaloosa, are the stores downtown open and ready for their business or do they end up having to defer to somewhere else or make a weekend trip they necessarily wouldn’t have to make?”
Our next question was whether the City should focus on attracting new businesses to Oskaloosa or expanding on the ones we currently have. “I’m more interested in expanding the ones we have. The businesses that are in the hunt, looking for different locations, many times are doing it looking for a bargain as well. While I’m willing to have those conversations, I’m not so sure I’m willing to bargain for a competitor for businesses we already have,” Krutzfeldt said.
The Mayor finished his interview by addressing some comments about the possibility of a Regional Airport. “One of the City Council candidates has expressed his resistance to the idea of a regional airport. And in his justification for that, he says ‘well we can expand the airport, the Oskaloosa Airport, anytime we want, there’s plenty of room there,’” Krutzfeldt said.
“I guess what I’m familiar with is reading the news reports from the City of Le Mars, where they had made a decision that they wanted to become more business friendly as a community, and so within that, that include expanding their airport to allow for more business traffic to come through. FAA denied them. The reason the FAA denied them was because they saw no future in that airport by itself, and said that they [Le Mars] make a mistake by not getting involved with the Fort Dodge Regional Airport that was built,” Krutzfeldt also said.
Krutzfeldt continued. “My read of the FAA therefore, is that they are no longer interested in single town airports, such as Oskaloosa, and are probably taking a more regional approach and will only fund things that are regional in nature. I would humbly disagree with the attitude that we could expand that airport if we wanted to.”
City Elections will be held on Tuesday November 8th, 2011
