(Editor's Note: Candidates from several races were featured in Monday's Candidate Forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Great Bend - Barton County. This is the first of several recaps of the event with candidates grouped by the race for which they are a candidate. This story focuses on the Barton County Commission District 1 race with candidates Duane Reif, Dale Maneth, and Matthew Gerritzen. Monday's full event, which was livestreamed by Eagle Media, can be viewed by CLICKING HERE).
By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Ahead of the Aug. 4 Primary Election, the League of Women Voters of Great Bend - Barton County hosted a candidate forum Monday evening at the Great Bend Events. Several candidates for various local elected officers were allowed a short introduction, then given two minutes to answer a random question they were provided beforehand. Candidates were also given the opportunity to answer a question of their choice. The Barton County Commission, District 1 race in the northern portion of the county features three candidates.
Duane Reif is the sitting chair for the board of commissioners. A lifelong Barton County resident, Reif graduated from Hoisington High School and attended Barton Community College. He has spent a lifetime working in the agriculture and oil industries, is a past president of the Hoisington Chamber of Commerce, a 27-year volunteer with the local fire department for which he now serves as captain, a past Hoisington Chamber Citizen of the Year, and Co-founder of Kans for Kids Cancer Fighting Foundation.
Reif drew question No. 3 pertaining to affordable housing in the county. With renters spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, they are often forced to make difficult choices about basic needs. How will you use municipalities tools and resources to expand access to affordable housing and reduce homelessness in Barton County?
Reif said the ideal solution is to build houses for the homeless but the issue is not that simple. Nor are the suspected causes, which could be poverty, low-wages, job loss, domestic violence, family loss, or health-related emergencies.
“The best use for county money is to help support the local agencies as much as we can,” Reif said. “They have the expertise and training to help the homeless. We support public health, CORE Communities, the Center for Counseling, Juvenile Services, Community Corrections, local emergency medical services. The county also offers the support of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. This program offers property tax rebates to residents to improve living conditions.
Matthew Gerritzen, also of Hoisington, graduated from Hoisington High before moving on to Barton Community College and Fort Hays State University. He has spent most of his life in the oil and agriculture industries. He has experience in local townships, and is a current member of the Barton County Farm Bureau. Like Reif, Gerritzen drew question No. 3 pertaining to affordable housing. He said it boils down to breaking up the landlord monopoly and bringing in higher-paying jobs.
“If you have a mass majority of your jobs that are $8-10-12 dollars, and most people are working two or three part-time jobs just to get to that point, you have to fix the economics that are backing it up to enable people to do that for themselves,” said Gerritzen. “In this situation, if we can bring in more jobs, more higher-paying jobs, retain some of the students from (Barton) that we’re actually putting money into as taxpayers and getting our money back out of it instead of it just being a situation where we’re basically nurturing people to actually go elsewhere to build other communities. Bring them back here, let them be utilized here, let out our tax money work for us.”
Dale Maneth is a native and current resident of Olmitz. After graduating from Otis-Bison High School, he graduated from Barton Community College and K-State University with degrees in animal science. He spent 30 years working for the state’s largest farm organization, and remains an advocate for agriculture and rural development. He has 22 years serving on a township board, and also has experience on the boards at Barton Community College and the Great Bend Co-Op.
Maneth drew question No. 4: What would success look like at the end of your term, and would you have partners in achieving it?
“After my tenure is all said and done, it would be that I inspired somebody to take my place on the commission,” Maneth said. “Finding someone that would champion the same ideas and principles, someone who would properly allocate tax receipts and invest in growth, and someone who would encourage personal investment in this county.”
Early voting is currently underway at the Barton County Clerk’s Office on the second floor of the Barton County Courthouse, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, through noon on Monday, Aug. 3. Regular polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Aug. 4.