Nick Gosnell: Lindsey Hatfield, she is running as a Democrat for the County Commission District 4 seat, which is the seat that includes most of the city of Hutchinson. And good morning, Lindsey.
Lindsey Hatfield: Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
Nick Gosnell: You bet. So first of all, for those folks that don't know you, who is Lindsey Hatfield? And why did you decide to run?
Lindsey Hatfield: I am a Reno County native. I was born and raised here, went to Bueller High School, graduated. Actually, I met my husband, I say this a lot, but I met him at the Hutchinson Mall about 20 years ago when the mall was a booming place to work. And he and I, excuse me, we moved away when I graduated and went to college. And then in 2018, after we had been married for some time and had a couple of kids, we decided to come back to Reno County to raise our kids and put down roots here because I loved growing up here. And I knew that this would be an amazing place to raise our family and my whole, the rest of my family, my mom and sisters are here. So that's why we came back. And since coming back, I've opened a small business. I own Salt City Scoops, which is a little food trailer that we run mostly in the spring and summertime. We sell ice cream cookie sandwiches. And I also work from home full time in property management. So I do have that full-time job. And then we do that Salt City Scoops on the side. And I'm PTO vice president. I got involved in my kids' school. They go to Allen STEM Magnet School. And we've just been really enjoying a calmer, wonderful way of life for our kids in Hutchinson because I loved growing up here.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So how does running for county commission help support that way of life?
Lindsey Hatfield: Well, the running for it does not support a calmer. It's a lot of work right now. But I knew when we moved back, I wanted to get involved. Part of my, I had some frustration with our town and our counties is the feeling that it's not progressing, that we are somewhat of a regressive county commission. And I feel like we need different leadership, younger leadership, people who have a different vision for Reno County, who are at a different place in their lives and really are going to be here for the rest of their lives. And so I knew I wanted to get involved. And to me, it's just about helping to create a community that I want to continue living in for the rest of my life. And I want my kids to put down roots and stay here as well.
Nick Gosnell: Economic development is such a big part of what every county wants to do. And yesterday was a massive day for Reno County economic development with the building of the power plant by Evergy. Now that has been proposed for 2030, they're going to start construction in 2027. And between the power that will be available and the water rights that are available in the city of Hutchinson, it seems like the county is primed for further economic development. How would you as a member of the county commission set policy to foster that and to keep that momentum going forward?
Lindsey Hatfield: Yeah, first of all, I was so excited. I got an email an hour before, well, I got it the night before, but I read it an hour before that press conference and I went over there. It was such an exciting press conference to be there live when it was announced. So how I would help foster that is economic development is such an important part of our community. And I would make sure that any, so any ideas that are brought forth to the county commission, we really are supporting. We're supporting places like our chamber of commerce and other programs in Hutchinson that are really doing the hard heavy lifting for economic development and making sure that we support them in any way that we can, because that is really economic development is the only way we're going to progress and move forward as a county.
Nick Gosnell: As I said to your opponent when I interviewed him earlier on this morning, no matter who wins, it looks like there's going to be two new county commissioners and three, I don't want to say old county commissioners, but three remaining county commissioners. That's it. So how do you persuade when a majority of the commission at least has pointed in a direction and now you, now you need to persuade at least one of them if you want to change the direction at all?
Lindsey Hatfield: Sure. I don't think of it so much as persuasion as just having a conversation and working with them and maybe getting them to understand where I'm coming from. Obviously when you work with anybody, it's a give and take, right? So I want to hear what they have to say and really take that in and, and, and discuss that. And I would hope that they would be willing to give the same back to me so that we could find common ground because really, I think we all probably share the same, what we want for Reno County, how we want it to be. It's just getting there and finding the way to that.
Nick Gosnell: The Reno County health department was put out front as all health departments across the state were during COVID. But the health department does a whole lot of things that, that have nothing to do with infectious disease. And when we're getting back to, I'm praying, normal life, at least closer to normal than we've been in the last five years, talk about the importance of supporting what they do, speaking generally, because the health department is one of the larger departments that the county actually has some oversight over in a way that they maybe don't the other ones that are just for want of a better way of putting it, branch offices of the state, like the treasurer and so on.
Lindsey Hatfield: Right. So that was really the catalyst for me running for this position was the fact that our incumbent, the person who's currently there, essentially felt like wanted to dismantle the health department. And, and, and to me, it's such a vital and important part of our community. As a kid, I got vaccinated there. And I know that it's the only place in Reno County that women can get access to WIC, women, infant and children, which is from pregnancy all through age five. It's extremely important. That's not all that they do, but it is the health of our community. It has to be a place for everyone in the county to be able to come and receive health services. And so that is our responsibility, not only to fund that, but to make sure that it continues and continues to help us have a thriving community.
Nick Gosnell: All right. The county commission, the basic function of it now, as opposed to maybe what it was 20, 30 years ago, now, now that they have a professional administrator, it isn't so much about the day to day deciding what the, uh, what, what check gets written today, as much as it is getting the general direction of the budget and the priorities for the county as a whole from a year to year basis. So what is your experience in that area of things in terms of budgeting and saying, okay, this is a good idea, but maybe not right now. Or this is an idea that we need to do now to set the, to set the pace for future years. How do you make those decisions? How does that go through your mind when you're making decisions for the short, medium and long term?
Lindsey Hatfield: Right. This is where I think my day job helps a lot because I work in property management or asset management. So you're dealing with an asset, a property and Reno County is also an asset, right? And so part of that is creating a budget for your year, looking at your income and your expenses. But a lot, a big part of asset management is not having deferred maintenance. So taking care of the little things, not putting a bandaid over something that's just going to cost you more money down the road. Um, so for me, I'm very comfortable creating budgets, working with budgets cause it's what I do in my day job. And it's really about planning for the big expenses. You're not going to have to replace your roof every year, but eventually you're going to need to replace your roof. You can't keep spending thousands of dollars, patching it and patching it and patching it when really you just need to replace it. So I have a lot of experience with that side sort of stuff with property management and, and I'm very comfortable with budgets.
Nick Gosnell: All right. And there are some areas, as I alluded to earlier, that are branch offices of the state, like the county treasurer basically has to follow whatever the statute says with regard to that county appraiser for all of the frustration that people have with their appraisals and the changes in that kind of stuff. Most of that is statutorily based and has to do with just comparables and those sorts of things. I've talked to the appraiser about that. So in those areas where you may not have a ton of ability to change what they do because the statute says what it says, well, how do you, how do you say to them, okay, yeah, we know you have to do this, but maybe you can do it in a different way, uh, in an effort to, to save the taxpayers money where it's even possible.
Lindsey Hatfield: I think you just hit the nail on the head. You say to them, I know you have to do this, but let's rethink this. Is there a different way that we can do this, hopefully to save people money? Uh, I mean, that's, that's getting into the nitty gritty of it. And I'm sure if I'm elected, um, you know, I'll have a lot of experience with that. But for me, it's all about trying to find new ways of doing things different than what we have been doing. Because to me, it feels like a lot of what we're doing is not helping us progress and move forward as a county. And we're just sort of stagnant and, and that's not my vision for the future. And I think a lot of people who live here, that's not our vision. We want to see people moving back to Reno County and not moving away. And that's what's been happening. So we just need new leadership with a vision who is willing to try something different than what we've been doing.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So how can folks find out more about your campaign and find out more about, uh, just how you plan to deal with issues? They can do so online, right?
Lindsey Hatfield: Yeah. I have a website voteforhatfield.com. You can go there and you can find out all about me. You can also email me [email protected]. I'm happy to answer any emails as well, and I live in Hyde Park. I have, I'm right across from the Hyde Park here or that little, you know, the grassy Hyde Park. So come over and say hi, if you want to, we've got all our scary Halloween decorations out right now.