Candidate forum gives glimpse of those running

About 40 people came to listen to five of the candidates running for office in Hill City at a May 12 candidate forum held at the Hill City Center.

John Johnson, who is running for alderman in Ward II, was not present, but his opponent, incumbent Dennis Siebert, was. Siebert, who is retiring from his position as a pastor at the Little White Church, also serves on the Hill City Ambulance Service and said he decided to run for his first term to have a voice. 

“I don’t always know what the answer is, but I work really hard at learning what kind of question I have to ask to get us to the answer that’s gonna help us make a wise decision,” Siebert said. 

He said he is running  to see the projects like water and wastewater through. He made no apologies for voting for those expensive infrastructure projects. 

“You’re all well aware we spent a lot of money during the last two years. Your water bill showed it  the last few months. I am sorry about that, but I voted for it,” Siebert said.  

He said since he moved to town, these were updates that he had heard needed to be completed.  

“I think all of you understand we needed to make some, and they’ve  been  expensive,” he said.

Siebert proudly explained the city received over $7 million in grant money for the projects. 

“I’m running again because we’ve got a lot of stuff started, and I want to see it through,” he said.

Incumbent candidate Justin Thiry is running for alderman in Ward I. Thiry’s wife, Laura, was in the audience, and the pair have two children. Thiry said the reason he is running this time is a little different from why he ran for his first term.

“Then, I ran because a lot of people I talked to  who were moving into town said we needed a change at city hall, and perhaps it was a time for some new leadership and slightly different vision,” Thiry said.

Thiry said he spoke with people directly, which confirmed what he had heard and felt he could possibly be the right man “to take on that challenge.”

He is running this time around because, “I believe we need someone at that desk who has been extremely involved in the water and wastewater projects that we have going on.”

Thiry said his job as a strategic accounts coordinator for an electrical distribution company, dealing with “utility projects like the one we’re dealing with here, only on the electric side instead of water and sewer,” has been “extremely helpful with my involvement in the projects we’re doing up here while we’re in these long negotiations and meetings with the engineers and the contractors, where we’ve had to plan and negotiate on the city’s behalf.” 

He said he wants to continue to be at these meetings to negotiate, “which I’m very good at on behalf of you all the citizens of Hill City.” 

Thiry says a “changing of the guard now could likely cost the town more money.”

Cheryl Honour, who is opposing Thiry for alderman in Ward I, said she is  running for council because she cares “deeply for this community and the people that live here.” Honour and her husband, Tom, have been married for 34 years, and they have two children.

She said she wants to be part of the process. Honour  said the charm of Hill City is unique. 

“I want to keep that charm. I think that’s important. As Hill City continues to grow, I think we have a responsibility to keep that charm,” she said. 

She said that growth “is great. It can bring opportunities, but it also requires thoughtful planning.”

Honour said the water and sewer issues are “very concerning.” Honour has been attending both planning and zoning and Hill City Common Council  meetings for four years and is “aware of what’s going on,” she said. 

She challenged Thiry’s contentions and said, “I believe I can be brought up to speed in those areas.”

Honour worked as a bank bookkeeper. 

“I think it’s important to balance that budget and watch our money for the city,” she said. 

Honour also worked in hospital communication and was a business representative for a large phone company. She has also had a side hustle for 20 years.  

“I think those are all areas I developed skills in problem solving, communication and those are vitally important things in public  service. You’ve got to be able to listen. You’ve got to be able to do your research,” she said. 

Honour said she has no personal agenda, and has the time to serve. 

“I want to listen to what the community wants,” she said.

Honour stressed the importance of supporting local businesses and said she participates in many city  activities “on a regular basis.”

Incumbent mayor Tana Nichols explained why she is running. Nichols has lived in Hill City for 30 years and served on council for four terms before taking a 16-year break. 

“In those 16 years, I watched three mayors resign, one mayor pass away, I watched one council after another fight each other, fight with mayors and fight with most of the local volunteer groups,” she said. 

Nichols said that is why she ran for mayor in the first place. 

Nichols said, “Our group  has been determined since  the beginning to stop kicking things down the road.”

She called her job as mayor “the tiebreaker, the liaison between council, staff, volunteers and the residents.”

She outlined the work she and the current council have done in the last two years. Nichols received applause when she said, “because of our hard work and research, this group has applied for and received a total of $7 million in grants toward our water and wastewater projects.”

Nichols said “the wastewater and water projects are critical…could we stop, yes, but at a great cost to Hill City.”

She went on to say, “So yes, none of us like the rate increases. For 20 years it (the sewer fund) operated  in the red. That didn’t happen last year. That didn’t happen the year before. One hundred thousand dollars in the red. It’s been operating that way for many years. Operating at a yearly loss draining the sewer fund reserves. So Hill City was just not prepared for sewer plant upgrades because the money was gone.”

Nichols is facing opposition from Kathy Skorzewski, who was mayor previously. 

Skorzewski immediately addressed why she resigned from the mayoral position when she had it. 

“I had served four years as your mayor of Hill City. I had served a vacated half a term, a full term, then I was in the middle of what would have been a second term,” Skorzewski said when she resigned. 

She explained during her term as mayor there were two “recurring things,” one being the sidewalk project and the other was paving Deegan Drive. 

“There were some other major projects we did as well,” Skorzewski said including updating computer systems at the wastewater treatment plant.

Skorzewski said the “role of the mayor is to be the leader and the person who builds the great team  to get things done.”

Skorzewski said when she moved to Hill City, she was retired but that she got the “opportunity to start a granted opportunity at the school,” which became “extremely important” to her.

“Knowing where the city was at that point, I felt comfortable to say, ‘You know what guys I’m gonna step back,’” she said.

Skorzewski said she is running again, “because I love Hill City.” She referenced a call she received about a permit for a sign as being the impetus for her candidacy. 

“I got a call not from someone at city hall, but from somebody in another state asking me about my  property because they weren’t familiar with it,” she said. 

She said that this experience with outsourcing on the city level “kind of caused me to take a step back.”

Skorzewski is still employed at the school but believes now she has the opportunity to “devote the time that is needed in order  to be a leader in the city.”

Candidates were asked various questions about subjects such as growth of the city, tax increment financing districts, what the city has done to assist with fire danger preparedness,  the culture of city government and its impact on the community and whether large expenditures of taxpayer money should go to a public vote.