Cynthia Paschen, right, of Jewell and Ames, talks to voters about issues of concern in the November 5 election. Paschen is challenging state Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, for the District 28 seat. Hamilton County Democrats hosted the meet and greet Monday at Fuller Hall.

Candidate Ryan Melton’s absence due to Covid exposure left Democrats Cynthia Paschen and Jerry Kloberdanz fielding questions Monday during a meet and greet event at Fuller Hall.

Paschen, of Jewell and Ames, said it has been fascinating meeting District 28 voters this fall.

When Paschen was urged to elaborate, she said: “Well, one thing that’s really different this year is I’ve got a lot to talk with Independents and Republicans about. There’s a lot of things we agree on. We don’t want the carbon pipeline — Summit pipeline — to run through Iowa.

“And the other thing that I’m finding a lot of agreement with the opposite party is on school vouchers. They know in a district like this one where there are no private high schools, that money is going to places like Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. And it’s not staying here in rural Iowa.

“So I see a lot of room for compromise, a lot of room for working across the aisle, and I haven’t seen that in the last eight years of this Republican trifecta. It’s been pretty deadlocked.”

Senate District 28 is currently represented in the Iowa Legislature by Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, who was invited to the Monday evening event but did not attend. Iowa Senate District 28 includes all of Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Humboldt, and Wright counties, as well as Story City and Roland.

Guth is known to publicly talk about the role his Christian faith plays in his decisions. Paschen said that might work against him sometimes.

“I think a lot of what Senator Guth has done has been from his faith perspective and that alienates a lot of people of different faiths or of no faith. So it’s hard for him to get things done with that narrow perspective.”

Hamilton County Supervisor Jerry Kloberdanz is running for reelection to his District 1 seat on that three-member board. His opponent is Mary Clausen. They both live in Webster City.

Kloberdanz said Monday that he is keenly aware people are concerned about their taxes.

“I am seeing when I talk to people is that they’re concerned, of course, about their property taxes,” he said. “But more than that, they’re concerned about the services that they’re going to have through the county.

“I know that we’ve spent some money revamping the Veterans Affairs. I talked to a lot of veterans that really think that was spectacular because now they’re getting services they didn’t have before. They are finding out that they’re eligible for more benefits through the federal government that they had no idea that they’re eligible for and that, in turn, puts less stress on the county for our general assistance. So I think that’s a big thing that we’ve been working on. That’s one of the things that’s one of my top priorities is to continue working with the veterans to make sure that their services are available for them.

“And then I think one of the things that is important to me is whenever we have a building, you have to maintain those buildings and over time we have not maintained our buildings or county. We maintained them to get by from day to day. But we’re going to have to put a new HVAC system in the courthouse that’s going to cost us over $800,000.

“Those types of things, I think we need to start setting money aside to pay for that so we don’t have to use as much tax dollars. … Those are the types of things that I think is important.

“But the other thing that we’re trying to do is we’re trying to consolidate all of our buildings,” he said. The county has already consolidated its health, social, veterans and economic development services under one roof at Shashi Station, 1610 Collins Street, Webster City. “We’re also looking at the possibility of even moving DHS out there in the future and that would open up another building in Webster City for some other business to go in there. I think it’s important that we try to consolidate and spend as little money on building grounds as we can.”

He added, “We have to be good custodians of the taxpayer dollar; we can’t just throw it away. … I think in the future with House File 718, we will find that funds are going to be more restricted because the state is going to dictate how much we can levy. I’m nervous in the fiscal year 26/27, 27/28, 28/29 that we may be — I don’t want to put any fear in anybody — but my concern is that I don’t want to lose any services.”