SPEARFISH — Spearfish residents head to the polls on Tuesday, April 12 to elect a candidate to one open Spearfish City Council Ward 3 position. The Black Hills Pioneer sent a candidate questionnaire to the three individuals vying for the positions, which carry a three-year term. The candidates’ answers for the council are published below as received. The three candidates running for the council are also printed below. When necessary, answers were edited slightly for length.
Ana Culver Rath
Name and what do you do for a living?
Ana Culver Rath. I am the owner and operator of Urban Hair Salon.
What motivated you to run for this office?
I care about my community and the residents in it.
Why do you think you are qualified for this position?
I have had the opportunity to be on city council for the past year. I have also spent the last 5 years in my current field of work, hearing and observing a lot of what is going on in our community and some of the changes that should be made.
With regards to leadership, what other elected public or nonprofit offices have you held?
City Council member for Ward 3.
How many city council meetings have you attended within the last year and during your candidacy?
I I have attended 22 city county meeting and 21 public works committee meetings.
Do you subscribe to your community’s legal newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer?
I read the Black Hills Pioneer online.
What are the most important issues that need to be addressed in your community?
Two of the biggest issues I see are growth and community involvement. In regard to growth, I believe there are many aspects to look at and consider, including but not limited to financial costs, infrastructure needs and long-term sustainability. I also believe a big part of a community’s success is the people and their commitment to the community.
How do you intend to solve these issues?
I feel it is important to seek wisdom and advice from others and look at other success stories of community growth and expansion. We also need to revisit our strategic plan and vision for Spearfish. I believe good leadership is passing on the vision to those around you and leading by example. I am actively involved in community events and local organizations that impact the lives of our residents.
What do you believe is working for your community and how will you retain that progression?
People are beginning to see the need for more opportunities for our youth. The skatepark is a prime example of how the community is coming together to find a solution.
What is the single most important stance you want to take if elected to city council?
Continuing to be an advocate for the citizens of Spearfish.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected?
Continuing to raise awareness of the city government and the impact it has on our daily lives and the importance of being involved.
What else do you want people to know about you?
I’ve lived in Spearfish my entire life and because of that, I have seen what truly makes Spearfish and our community great. I see how the community has rallied together in times of need. An example is, Grayson Chapeau (aka the pop tab kid) my nephew. He has been a recipient of the community’s involvement and passion for their residents. I also am involved to make sure my kids get to experience the amazing aspects of the community that I was so fortunate to grow up in.
With new housing developments coming online – Sky Ridge, Miller Ranch, Countryside, etc., does Spearfish need to expand roads or streets to accommodate the increased traffic?
The great thing about the City of Spearfish is we have a master plan in place that addresses infrastructure needs that are impacted by the growth. We also have consultants that do studies to determine what needs to be done.
With housing and land prices skyrocketing, how can the city balance the growth while ensuring there is adequate, affordable housing for the workforce?
It is worth looking at and evaluating the need to offer more building incentives. I also think it would be worth looking at different options and thinking outside the box.
How should the city balance the dramatic increase in new residents with maintaining its green spaces and open lands?
Canvasing or polling would be a great opportunity to see what the citizens of Spearfish want
Brandon Earl
Name and what do you do for a living?
VP of Schiller Painting
What motivated you to run for this office?
A few years ago I was Foreman for the streets and solid waste department for the City of Spearfish. During that time there were many issues I wanted to address but was very difficult with being middle management. One major issue was the communication from the city to its residents. As a City Council Member it will be my duty, and should be all council members duty, to our great citizens to make sure your voice is heard and you have a say in major decisions that your hard earned tax dollars are being spent on so we do not end up with things such as, more medians, in our community.
Why do you think you are qualified for this position?
I am qualified for this position because I know the details and inner workings of the city so i know what it takes from our city crews to accomplish tasks in the correct manner to better suit our citizens needs. I was also a volunteer firefighter on top of being Foreman for the City so I have heard many of the needs and wants from our community so in this city council position I can work hard to accomplish a better way of life for everyone. One huge complaint is snow removal but the city does not have the correct amount of employees nor the correct equipment to better accomplish the snow removal tasks.
With regards to leadership, what other elected public or nonprofit offices have you held?
I was a volunteer firefighter here in Spearfish on two separate occasions and am also a leader for Younglife (an outreach ministry program for high school aged students).
How many city council meetings have you attended within the last year and during your candidacy?
I have only attended 1 city council meeting in the last year but have read the minutes and I pay very close attention to our local news. I am also still in contact with multiple employees of the city of spearfish and am updated frequently. In my time as a Foreman for the City I regularly attended city council meetings so I could hear and understand the publics needs and learn of things I could do better to help with those needs.
Do you subscribe to your community’s legal newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer?
I am only subscribed online and I read as much of the local news as possible that is posted online.
What are the most important issues that need to be addressed in your community?
We need a better current infrastructure plan. A few years back the city hired a company from Texas to test all of our cities streets. They had equipment to test the depth and density of our streets and they put together a plan to have our current streets fixed up. This plan was not followed, at that time, for budgeting reasons but I believe we need to find where we can save money on less important projects and get our current infrastructure fixed up before we grow too big to be able to do so. I’d also like to look into getting a future plan for a new skate park and other recreational needs.
How do you intend to solve these issues?
There are multiple places that funds are allotted that are of less significance. We need to look at some of these items and delay the process of some of these things in order to better meet your needs of improving our current infrastructure, better the snow removal process and to upgrade our current parks.
What do you believe is working for your community and how will you retain that progression?
I think the downtown and local business scene is booming right now. I would like to work closely with the downtown business association to come up with more ideas for downtown events especially throughout the winter months. There is limited places for kids to go have fun locally in a safe manner during the winter. We can add more winter type festivals downtown and find creative ways for downtown businesses to create indoor events, along with the outdoor events, that kids and families can attend and have a fun safe atmosphere all while supporting our small local businesses.
What is the single most important stance you want to take if elected to city council?
COMMUNICATION. Communication is the biggest stance I want to take. From the entry level employees, to upper management within the city, to you, the citizens. I will regularly visit with each department within the city to learn what there processes and needs are to better provide high quality services for this community. On big ticket items that city council will vote on I will get the publics input whether that means daily outreach at local business or even going door to door to get a good understanding of any and all thoughts on each decision before that decision is made. It is the council members duty to listen to you no matter what it takes.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected?
I hope to accomplish fixing up our current infrastructure before building new, give our current parks a face-lift, make sure we have proper rules and regulations regarding the legalization of medical marijuana so we do not have that taking place in or around our public spaces, look into unnecessary spending on things the public isn’t going to want and empower your voices so you know you’re being heard.
What else do you want people to know about you?
I have a beautiful wife and 3 beautiful kids. I live in the reserve development and have lived in Spearfish just over 11 years. My wife, however, was born and raised her entire life in Spearfish and I plan that as my kids futures as well. I grew up down the street in sturgis and when I came to Spearfish I aimed to serve this community thus I joined the Spearfish fire department as a volunteer.
With new housing developments coming online – Sky Ridge, Miller Ranch, Countryside, etc., does Spearfish need to expand roads or streets to accommodate the increased traffic?
Not at this time. Currently we need to focus very hard on fixing our current streets so we can build new streets in the future. If we grow too much too fast we will never be able to keep up with regular maintenance and services (Garbage pickup, snow plowing, water, sewer, etc.) of our current streets thus resulting in raising taxes to be able to afford it and the last thing we need to be doing is raising taxes. We need to keep taxes to a bare minimum. However we do need to make sure we continue to grow to keep all of our local contractors filled with work. We have to find the middle ground.
With housing and land prices skyrocketing, how can the city balance the growth while ensuring there is adequate, affordable housing for the workforce?
We need to have serious discussions with developers to encourage them to help with affordable housing by looking into affordable developments or complexes. Then we need to vet who is buying those homes so we do not have wealthy citizens from out of town buying all the affordable housing.
How should the city balance the dramatic increase in new residents with maintaining its green spaces and open lands?
The city needs to have a plan and locate what the public wants our green spaces to be. Once we know what areas our green spaces are going to be we need to make sure we do not allow building permits for those spaces. We also need to decide where we want the future growth of Spearfish to be located and work on building permits for those areas.
Dustin Lee
Name and what do you do for a living?
Dustin Lee. I am a retired Military Comm- anding Officer who now works with communities around the world to provide affordable, scalable, state-of-the-art fire stations.
What motivated you to run for this office?
Spearfish needs a City Councilman with a well-rounded background who has a proven track record of making the right call at the right time. Spearfish’s next City Councilman should have a significant amount of leadership and budget experience and most importantly, should have a clear and defined plan for future City growth, development and public safety.
I have a plan for Spearfish and the background and experience to ensure its success.
Why do you think you are qualified for this position?
I have over 25 years of Military and community service experience and am passionate about helping people. I have led at the highest levels of the military and local government. Most recently, I was Spearfish’s Public Works Director. As the Public Works Director, I was responsible for 10 of the City’s major departments (Water/Sewer, Power plant, Wastewater, Rubble Site, City Engineering, Administration, Street department, Mechanics shop, Airport, and Government buildings).
With regards to leadership, what other elected public or nonprofit offices have you held?
I am the HOA president of my community.
How many city council meetings have you attended within the last year and during your candidacy?
I have either attended virtually or read the transcripts of the majority of the council meetings.
Do you subscribe to your community’s legal newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer?
What are the most important issues that need to be addressed in your community?
City infrastructure. We need a combined, long-range plan that incorporates the age, condition, planned repairs and life expectancy of our infrastructure. This plan needs to have cost and timelines as well as planned future growth overlays. Cities can become reactionary to infrastructure needs. This reactionary model is expensive and inefficient. Spearfish is in a period of tremendous growth and cannot afford to be reactionary. City assets need to have a similar long range replacement schedule created. City equipment should have a purchased date and an expected life expectancy cataloged. This data should feed into the master long range budgeting process.
Parking, congestion and adherence to ordinances also needs to be addressed.
How do you intend to solve these issues?
The data and information is currently available at the department level to create a comprehensive infrastructure plan. The challenge is combining all of the data into one useful strategic document that can aide City planners as they map out long range budgets.
I would like to help work with a team of representatives from the Public Works and Engineering departments to compile and analyze the data and create a document that will aide in long range planning.
Handicap parking in the downtown business area has been an issue in the past and future growth could exacerbate the issue. I’d like to see a renewed effort to equitably move and assign parking spaces downtown.
What do you believe is working for your community and how will you retain that progression?
City employees have embraced a culture of safety. I plan on attending safety meetings and fully supporting the reward program. I hope to make safety a daily talking point.
I was excited to see our new wildlife fence around our airport. The fence was a crucial step towards safety and modernizing the airport.
Our City staff are experts at applying for grants to help offset costs of various City projects. Spearfish has received grants for a number of projects including bridge work and the wildlife fence. I want to continue to encourage these applications in an effort to stretch how far our tax dollars go.
What is the single most important stance you want to take if elected to city council?
Spearfish’s future will be fluid and my only stance will be to act responsibly and ethically while working to better our community.
What do you hope to accomplish if elected?
If elected, I hope to bring insight and ideas to City Council meetings. I plan to be fully educated on all issues brought before Council and offer viable solutions to issues up for debate.
Additionally, I would love to see Spearfish begin some type of recycling campaign with an added focus on reusable, clean energy. Spearfish’s hydro power plant is a great start but I know we can do more. Spearfish is a clean, beautiful City with unlimited potential in this space.
What else do you want people to know about you?
I am an outdoor enthusiast who can be found hiking and mountain-biking throughout the Black hills.
Spearfish is special and unique and it will take a serious group of capable individuals to keep it that way. I think I can help.
With new housing developments coming online – Sky Ridge, Miller Ranch, Countryside, etc., does Spearfish need to expand roads or streets to accommodate the increased traffic?
There have been various traffic studies completed on this issue (both by the City and private sector). Most studies agree that there needs to not only be road and street expansion but also infrastructure improvements for planned future capacity needs.
Well thought out, sound developer agreements are crucial to Spearfish being able to afford all of the new growth.
With housing and land prices skyrocketing, how can the city balance the growth while ensuring there is adequate, affordable housing for the workforce?
Phase 1 of Sky Ridge is a great start. All indications are that the development will be a success.
It is vital however, that the City continues the conversation for phase 2 and 3. This conversation must lead to a plan that is thoroughly vetted. Material and labor costs, resale value and eligibility, City and developer levels of involvement and tax increment financing consequences are all just a few of the hundreds of details that need to be planned and discussed.
Additionally, the Sky Ridge model can be used elsewhere in the City (with or without City involvement).
How should the city balance the dramatic increase in new residents with maintaining its green spaces and open lands?
The City needs to encourage new neighborhoods to build and provide parks and green space within new developments.
Having parks and green space comes with a price, however. Park maintenance is very time consuming and expensive. New Development HOAs should be responsible for their park and open space maintenance costs.
Our Park and Recreation department does an amazing job maintaining our current assets but additions like Sky Ridge’s park and rec area will stretch this department thin. City Council must be willing to work with the Park and Rec Director to ensure the department is adequately staffed and has the proper equipment.
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