Dunn County Board candidate: Sue Suechting

ELK MOUND  — Sue Suechting will be the challenger for the supervisor position on the Dunn County Board for District 25 in the April 2 election and is running against incumbent Tom Gilbert.

Suechting, age 71, of Elk Mound, is married to her husband, Ralph, and has three adult children and six grandchildren.

The Colfax Messenger sent a questionnaire to the candidates.

As of press time, after sending two e-mail messages to Gilbert about the questionnaire, the Messenger had not received a reply.

Here are Suechting’s answers to the questionnaire.

• What is your occupation?

I am a retired Social Worker; I worked in the medical field.

• What is your educational background?

BA in Social Work.

• Why did you decide to run for election to the Dunn County Board? 

I decided to run for the Dunn County Board because I want to be involved in planned development in our towns and villages, including consideration of our water resources, land use, soil and forests. Our natural resources in this county are of the utmost importance for the economic health as well as the physical health of our community. Dunn County has agreed to sustainability goals and I want to be assured that we move forward with those goals.

• What do you believe to be the two biggest issues facing Dunn County?

The two biggest issues facing Dunn County are: 1) affordable housing that is also energy efficient, and 2) a clear path forward for land use, whether for farming or business development, that protects our water, soil and forests.

• How would you go about addressing those issues? 

Some solutions to these issues could be the continued cooperation between government agencies and community leaders, with the developers of housing, business or expansion of farming. I would like to see more collaboration to assist the smaller farmers with resources to allow them to continue farming in sustainable ways, and provide the processing facilities and markets for their goods.

• Anything else you would like voters to know?

I support more energy production on the local level such as solar energy. I also support more public transportation to rural communities to reduce our use of private vehicles, and extended bike and hiking trails for the health of our citizens.