By Kacie Svoboda
In the upcoming elections on June 2, the Hill City Council has two open seats available — with Pam Fowler running unopposed in Ward 2, while current alderman Jason Gillaspie will compete against former council member Tana Nichols for the Ward 1 seat.Gillaspie has spent the last six years as alderman of Ward 1 and has used his financial experience in his career working with the state of South Dakota on budgeting to advise the council in its decisions.
Gillaspie wants to continue his work on the council to ensure the completion and guide the results of some ongoing Hill City projects, such as the sidewalk reconstruction and the development of a comprehensive plan. He also wants to push the council to pay off the town’s debts with its savings. Gillaspie finds that paying off Hill City’s loans would have a greater
economic benefit in the long run than the meager accumulating interest on the town’s savings.
Gillaspie is also looking for ways to have the council work within the current budget and promote community engagement. However, there’s yet another reason that he wants back on the council.
“I’ve just really enjoyed doing the work,” Gillaspie said.
As a council member, Gillaspie views it as his responsibility to take care of the “big items,” like roads, water and sewer first and branch out from there to items like parks and recreation. And he feels that’s exactly what he did when there was a shortage in the town’s sewer fund and he championed to only raise sewer rates and not water rates, too — as many municipalities opt to do when funds in either category get tight.
“We didn’t raise water rates and we got done what needed to be done,” Gillaspie said.
He also believes in customer service and his ability to find common ground in the interests of Hill City’s groups, like year-round versus seasonal residents and businesses.
“It’s been a good experience,” Gillaspie concluded.
Challenger Nichols served four terms on the Hill City Council, spanning from 2000-08. And after a seven-year hiatus to recharge her batteries, she’s ready to rejoin its ranks in the Ward 1 seat currently occupied by Gillaspie.
Nichols’ two major reasons for wanting back on the council are to remedy the lack of community involvement and to work toward seeing through with the council’s previous promises and commitments. Nichols notes that the council is still following up with items that were said when she was last on the council.“I believe that many of the local citizens are frustrated and feel as if they are uninformed,” Nichols explained. “They think their opinions do not matter and it is futile to speak up. I want the people to be informed of the issues in Hill City. And I want to be available to them and to be their voice.”
To accomplish this, Nichols plans to reinstitute a weekly column in the Prevailer that she wrote during her earlier time on the council, called the Council Corner. According to Nichols, this column broke down the issues in a way that the public could easily understand.
“I don’t think the citizens of Hill City are involved and I’d like to get the information out to them,” she said.
Nichols has been a Hill City resident for 19 years and is the owner of the Mangy Moose Saloon on Main Street.
“I think people have forgotten that we as council members are here to represent them, that their opinions matter and that restrictions and ordinances should be written according to the public and not the whim of the ever-changing powers that be,”Nichols concluded.
In additiom to the council election, four candidates are vying in the election for two open three-year-term seats on the Hill City School Board for the 2015-16 school year. Angie Ross, Dennis Krull and Greg Schroeder will go up against each other and current board member Robert Timm.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 2.
Nichols encourages Hill City citizens to “get out and vote.”