Safe and quality housing is a concern in Dunn County. In the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment, 76% of Dunn County residents responded that housing is a weakness for the community. The need for housing in our community impacts residents in all stages of life and income levels. While there is no quick fix, we can work towards the low hanging fruit of the issue. The County zoning ordinances and comprehensive plan should be reviewed and updated to remove barriers to make Dunn County a more desirable to development. Education is an important part of improving our community as well. We need to work to dispel myths that are associated with the term “affordable” housing and ensure that we are addressing all of the housing needs in our community.

Dunn County has 425 miles of County Highways. This is the 7th most miles in the state, while our population is 33rd out of 72. The average life span of a road is about 20 years, while our County Roads have to be patched and bandaged twice that long. The cost of materials has increased dramatically over the past few years. We need to increase the capacity of work that can be done and urge our state and federal governments to help provide the funding to do so. These funding opportunities could include seeking an increase in the gas tax to be comparable to other states in the area and supporting increased funding for local road and bridge assistance programs.

Dunn County residents deserve a healthy environment. In the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment, 80% of Dunn County residents responded that Healthy Environment is a weakness for the community. 14% of private wells tested in Dunn County exceed the standards for nitrate in drinking water. I support clean water and a program of water testing for all residents. Continuing to test and monitor our ground water will help us to fully understand the issues. We can continue to seek support from State elected representatives to establish of a statewide groundwater quality program that can provide funding and technical support to county groundwater testing and assessment programs.

The top two priority areas I see in the upcoming budget are funding our roads and borrowing. The condition of our County Highways will not improve without the funding to complete the projects. While we can ask for money from the state and federal governments, the only funding we have control over is our local funds. I support increasing funding to our highways in a manner that can be balanced with the other portions of the county budget. Borrowing is a part of County Government. Currently the amount of debt repaid each year is greater than the new borrowing. As long as that trend continues, borrowing is an essential part of the budget process. We need to continue to annually update the 5-year capital improvement plan and use it to distribute large projects over future budget years.

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