Justin Ahlers - Nobles County Commissioner District 1

About

I have extensive knowledge of both public works and government budget from working for a local government for over nine years.
What is your top priority in county government? We need to be fiscally conservative and make sure we are utilizing all of our current assets and options before spending taxpayers money, this way we can avoid excessive levy increases. The county owns many buildings throughout Worthington and not all of them are being utilized to the full potential. Rather than build new or invest more money, we need to take a closer look at all the properties and see where we can use them to solve some of the county’s needs, including a new site for the historical site and a more efficient use of our existing library.
Our infrastructures including roads and bridges are in need of maintenance and repair which is a vital part of our county and something that needs to have more attention. Roads and bridges are things we all use each and every day. Our county taxpayers work hard and provide the county with tax money to improve the lives for everyone in the county but we need to be mindful of the fact it is their money and we need to be responsible for smart spending also keeping excessive spending to a minimum.
Explain ideas you like to see accomplished in the county in the next four years? The library is an important asset in the community but we need to make sure we are exhausting all options already available to the county including the current building and possibly looking into buildings already owned by the county. The cost to build new is very high and would put an additional levy or bond on taxpayers who have already endured many years of higher taxes.