In Their Words - Candidate survey responses for Eau Claire County Board of Supervisors

Candidates running in contested elections for the Eau Claire County Board in the April 5 election were contacted by the Tri-County Area Times and asked some questions in regards to the topics of the campaign and their plans if elected. Some have replied back. Here are their answers.

Todd Meyer - District No. 1 - Fairchild, Ludington, Wilson, Bridge Creek

1). Why do you want to serve on the county board?

Thanks for this opportunity. I have long been an outspoken advocate for the communities of rural Eau Claire and Clark counties, since my days as a rural small businessman representing my home community of Fairchild on the board of the Eau Claire Economic Development Corporation, through my years of service as chair of the Town of Fairchild board, to my current job as an instructor at Chippewa Valley Technical College where I was originally hired to teach US Government and now teach at Neillsville Center. The communities of District 1, like small rural communities everywhere, are facing challenges and need someone on the county board who will work to turn these challenges into opportunities through local development and partnerships with county, state, and federal agencies. Wise investment is the best form of fiscal responsibility.

2). Given the budget and other problems the county's human services department faces, what in opinion should be solutions the county should adopt to fix them?

Despite the way some would portray it, this is not an urban versus rural issue. Eau Claire, Jackson and Clark Counties, all counties with large rural areas, have some of the highest poverty rates in the state. In Eau Claire County, much is in the rural eastern half of the county. In addition, over 80 percent of Human Services cases involve substance abuse issues. Add in the difficulties imposed by COVID, and no wonder human services is struggling. In the short term, I would support the use of some federal ARPA funds to make up past deficits, given COVID’s outsized demands on the human services department over the past couple of years. In the long term, rural poverty and substance abuse are long-term, structural issues that will require proactive, targeted infrastructure investment to address if we as a county want to curb reactive deficit spending that can only attempt to manage symptoms instead of address root causes.

3). What are some upcoming challenges the county faces and what's your plan for meeting them?

Thirty miles east of Eau Claire are internet connections so bad you’d think we were 2,000 miles north in the Yukon. This is unsustainable and a threat to the county’s future prosperity. Reliable broadband internet access is an existential issue for Eau Claire County’s rural areas, just like railroads were in the nineteenth century and highways and power lines were in the twentieth. Good rural connections are crucial to preserving the blend of urban amenities, rural living, and easy access to beautiful wild spaces that makes Eau Claire County so attractive to a growing number of professionals who could choose to live anywhere as their livelihoods continue to become increasingly detached from any specific location. Vigorously supporting affordable broadband access for EVERY rural home and business location in Eau Claire County will enhance the competitive appeal of the entire Chippewa Valley region and should be a top priority for the Eau Claire County Board.

4). Do you believe the eastern part of the county is serviced well by county government and if not what needs to be changed to make it better?

Our county’s small towns in the east are becoming smaller, and the average age of rural residents has climbed everywhere in rural eastern Eau Claire County except within our Amish communities. The population makeup is shifting as the closer towns to Eau Claire transition into bedroom communities and the more distant, like once-booming Fairchild, dwindle as local agriculture and logging labor demand decreases due to larger and more efficient equipment. At the same time, we’re seeing more truck, heavy equipment and ATV/UTV traffic on our locally funded and maintained town roads, and our county highways and trails in the east are showing the signs of increased wear. Taken together, these trends suggest to me a need for a renewed commitment to rural investment and retooled infrastructure development if our county is at all interested in sustaining our balance of urban and small town living into the next century. At a minimum, we should act to preserve our small towns’ existing residential capacity for future workers and professionals as the Eau Claire metro region expands outward.