Ken Hemmesch
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your family:
I’m a lifelong resident of Stearns County. I was the oldest of eleven children growing up on a family farm north of Paynesville. I’ve been married for 39 years and have 2 sons and 1 grandson. I’m a Vietnam Air Force Veteran. I have an accounting background and recently retired from Stearns County Human Services after 23 years of employment. In 1999 I was honored by the Minnesota Knights of Columbus as their Knight of the Year. In 1992 Stearns County honored me as their Civic Employee of the Year. I was a youth volunteer baseball, basketball, and soccer coach for many years. I’m also involved with Special Olympics. I’m also an avid fisherman and fan of high school and college sports.
What experience do you have that prepares you for public office?
I’m a past Holy Spirit Church School Board Member, Stewardship and New Church Building committee member. I was the Charter Grand Knight of the new Holy Spirit Knights of Columbus Council. I was elected moderator at several of the old St. Cloud Township annual meetings. Being employed by Stearns County for 23 years in the Human Services Finance and Technology Division I have a vast experience of county government as I worked with many of the other county departments. Being raised on a farm I’m also aware of the rural issues as some of my relatives are still actively farming.
Why did you decide to run for this office?
Several friends and past co-workers suggested I run because of my interest and experience in the county. I also feel I can bring new ideas which will be beneficial to the county board. Now being retired I can devout my time to do this.
Top three issues you would tackle, if elected?
Recently I’ve been visiting some of the neighborhoods and the constituents have been saying how the rise in gas costs and medical insurance have taken a big bite out of their income. In the past when Stearns County would increase the tax levy it did not affect the taxpayer as much because of all t he new construction that increase the tax capacity. Now with the slowdown of new construction, the county needs to try to keep the new tax levy as low as possible to not increase the financial burden of its residents. As a start I would propose no new salary increase for the county commissioner position. With the increase of new county parks and bike trails there is also the additional cost of maintaining them. We need to utilize the sentence to serve crews to the utmost to keep those maintenance costs down. Also we need to look for more corporate sponsorship like currently being done with one of the park trucks. There is also areas where revenues could be increased which would not affect the majority of the Stearns County residents. Also there are county expenses that could be cut and used in the areas that are under funded. Limiting out of state travel is just one area.
With the construction of the new west campus some of the space problems will be alleviated in the short term. But with the continued growth of inmates in our law enforcement center more space is needed. As the Corrections Department keeps growing it may be time to split them away from the large Human Services Department and house them at the new west campus. This would free up more space in the County administration building plus open up some much needed parking spaces, as many county employees are on waiting list s to park in the county parking lots. Once a new St. Cloud Post Office is built, the old Post Office would need to be looked at as on option to expand the counties downtown campus.
I also feel we need to look at many of the services that we provide and evaluate them to see if some changes need to be made. Just because we have always provided them does not mean we need to continue. As an example can we afford to have 3 public heath nurses drive to Sauk Centre to administer flue shots when only 5 residents show up and then as for a $15 voluntary donation? Those 5 residents probably could have received their flue shot from their local clinic or one of the grocery stores that puts on flu shot clinics. I don’t’ think it makes sense to have those nurses spend time packing up, unloading and travel time for that service when their services could be better utilized. Also add in the cost of the mileage to this. The continued increase cost of Detox services, which now costs $315/day needs to be looked at. Many of those clients are at Detox numerous times each year. I would propose that we need to see how we can shift some of our current social worker staff duties and have one of them at Detox when those clients are discharged each forenoon to see what help we could provide them so they aren’t back again tonight or next weekend which is very common.