Three GOP candidates vie for Wellsburg area supervisor seat

By the way the race for Grundy County supervisor in district two is shaping up, whoever takes over for outgoing Republican Harlyn Riekena won’t be much of a departure from the established standard.
           
Three candidates have filed paperwork for the June 5 primary, and at this point, the Democrats are not fielding a challenger in the district that stretches from Wellsburg all the way to the northwest corner of the county near Ackley and west toward Steamboat Rock. GOP hopefuls Heidi Nederhoff and Richard Steppe are dairy farmers, and Jason Merfeld works at John Deere in Waterloo while raising stock cows and grain farming in his spare time.
           
During interviews with The Grundy Register, Nederhoff, Merfeld and Steppe sang Riekena’s praises and added that they hope to use his 18 years on the board as a model for themselves.
           
“He’s a great guy, and I’d like to be as good as he is,” Steppe said.
           
Nederhoff was the first candidate to officially declare after Riekena announced his impending retirement and has received his unofficial blessing since then. As landowners along the route of the new Highway 20, she and her husband Mark have learned to work with the government in the past, and Nederhoff aims to come in to the seat with an open mind if she’s elected.
           
“We need to keep the roads in good condition for ag, and I just feel that the county’s in a good place. I’ll try to keep it going,” she said. “If there is a question or something that I’m unsure about, (Riekena) is a good resource.” 
 
Merfeld, a 37-year-old Franklin County native and Ackley-Geneva graduate, has lived in the Wellsburg area since 2000, and he plans to make rural roads, sound fiscal decision-making and the farm economy his primary focuses if he is elected to the board. He acknowledged that the wind issue has been divisive, but he hopes that constructive dialogue can lead to more productive solutions going forward.
           
“I’m going to go into it with an open mind because after all, you do work for the people, and you’ve got to do what’s best for the people and the county,” he said. 
 
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