VanWeelden Wants To Complete Work

Henry 'Willie' VanWeelden at a recent Supervisor meeting

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Mahaska County Supervisor Willie VanWeelden is looking to the voters for help in winning a fourth term.

The primary election is June 5th, and we continue our conversation with all the Supervisor candidates, this time focusing on the incumbent Henry ‘Willie’ VanWeelden.

The same as I have asked every other candidate to this point, is what challenges he sees Mahaska County facing. “Still the road issues. The fact that we’re operating with basically the same money we’ve been operating with, 10, 12 years. The cost of everything has gone up, from labor to materials to trucks and the legislatures has chosen not to raise the gas tax which to me is a user tax, not a general overall tax. You use it, you pay for it.”

“I think that’s probably the biggest thing. There’s some things I’d like to get done that require money. We need a southeast connector road. We need to continue the 63 study.” VanWeelden said about things he would like to continue working on for Mahaska County.

VanWeelden also spoke about the possibility of consolidation of counties or regionalization, “What I’ve seen in the past, leads me to believe there would not be a lot of efficiencies gained.”

VanWeelden did say that there would be a possibility of cost savings, “if everything was done on computer, you could probably have one center somewhere. People still like to come in and see somebody face to face.” Going on to say, “I think your always going to need somebody to take care of records.”

I posed the question to VanWeelden about looking back at his time as Supervisor so far, what accomplishments come to mind that he had been a part of.

One of the first examples he spoke about was the work on transforming mental health in Mahaska County from the South Central Mental Health to the current New Directions.

VanWeelden remembers some of the early meetings he attended with the South Central Mental Health. “All of a sudden it dawns on me, there’s a black hole over here sucking up a lot of county money [South Central Mental Health]. They were losing money faster than we could supply them with money. Within the first six months we closed that down and got together with Mahaska Health Partnership and opened New Directions. Some people were a little unhappy with that at the time. I think it’s proven that it’s working.”

VanWeelden also headed the County’s interest in the one percent sales tax for the Oskaloosa School District. “Looking back I would have done a few things different,” VanWeelden said about the learning experience he’s had so far as Supervisor. “I was a little green,” VanWeelden said of his early days in office.

VanWeelden says that he’s “been an ear for people. I don’t always have solutions,” and says he’s “generally available” when people need him.

The airport project has been a consistent question I have posed to the other candidates, and VanWeelden filled me in on his thoughts about the project. “Early on when this first started, I was in about my first or second year on the board. I went to a meeting with Howard Groenendyk who was on the board at that time, listened to what was going on and thought, ‘does this really need to be?'”

Over time, after researching and listening, VanWeelden said his opinion changed. “It made sense to put the two together. From when I got enough information to make a decision, and got past all the negativism, and all the gossip that goes with it, I think it needs to happen. I think it’s a good thing for Pella and Oskaloosa.”

“I think if we’re going to keep these towns viable, the opportunities for jobs have to be here,” VanWeelden said.

With other local counties moving towards five member board of supervisors, I asked VanWeelden his thoughts on the issue. “That really has been discussed a lot with, not necessarily here but, the other boards. You see how some boards went to five.”

VanWeelden believes that the dynamics of the board would change. “Would the taxpayers of this county want to spend the extra money to do that?” is the question VanWeelden posed back to me then. Saying that he can see both the resistance to the idea as well as the benefit. “It probably would cut the politics out of it a little more, even though there should not be politics at the local level.”

Before ending our chat, I asked VanWeelden if he had a closing statement to the voters, “If your happy with me, fine. If your not, you better elect somebody else.” He said that he believes that everyone knows where he stands, saying, “if they don’t know by now, they’re not gonna know. So, if your ready for a change, go for it. This is what the elections about. The sun will come up the next day whether I win, loose, or draw.”