Four candidates will be on the Nov. 8 ballot for two at-large seats on the Hastings City Council. Incumbents Lori Braucks and Mark Vaughan decided against seeking reelection. The August primary election whittled the full field of six candidates to four. They are Angie Hause, Ian Martin, Dave Pemble and Tom Wright.

The Hastings Journal profiled each prior to the primary, and here are excerpts from those interviews.

Hastings native Angie Haus is an active member of the community who is running for one of the two seats on City Council.

At 24-years-old, Haus would be the youngest member of the council if elected. She currently works as a dental assistant at Smile Orthodontics in St. Paul.

She has also done a variety of volunteer dental work, though Mission of Mercy, Hope Dental Clinic, and Give Kids a Smile. Haus had the opportunity in 2020 to travel to Uganda as part of a mission trip with a group organized by Paul Musherure, a pediatric dentist through Health Partners.

Haus has also volunteered at Feed My Starving Children and Second Harvest Heartland. She is a board member for both nonprofit organizations THRIVE and IDEA in Hastings. THRIVE is an initiative that began in 2016 to foster dialog and build understanding of the state of diversity, inclusion, and equity in town. IDEA is dedicated to bringing awareness and change to the community and beyond on topics related to racial discrimination, bias and inequality. In the past, Haus ran equity labs for THRIVE, which are training courses offered for businesses and public officials. The training is related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“I think inclusivity, diversity and equity are important to the foundation of any town because it is what keeps us going,” said Haus. “We want to become a welcoming community for all, so if we don’t have that, to me we don’t have anything.”

There are many focuses of Haus’ campaign, including: Increasing inclusivity and tourism, improving public transportation throughout the city, maintaining small businesses and city staff, and remaining involved throughout the Vermillion Street Corridor redevelopment, which Haus referred to as the “spine of the city.”

“We have beautiful river walks and wonderful businesses,” said Haus. “There’s so many parks and trails and events every week, tourism really ties in with inclusivity because we want to be a welcoming town to bring in new people. We want people to want to stay here and love this town for the great qualities it has.”

Maintaining while improving what prior council members have done is important to Haus. She said there is always room to learn and grow. According to Haus, her energy is what sets her apart from the other candidates and gives her a different perspective.

Haus has a husband named Kris and family throughout the Hastings and Miesville area. Her partner is also a board member for IDEA.

Educationally, Haus graduated from Hastings High School in 2016, and from Century College in 2019 with an associate degree in dental assisting.

Hastings native Ian Martin is an active member of the community who is running for one of the two seats on Hastings City Council.

At 35, Martin has many of the important life experiences to understand the importance of running for a local office. He and his wife Kelsy own a home in Hastings. He went back to college in the middle of the pandemic to earn his master’s degree in public administration while working a fulltime job that included working with the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

Martin has spent seven years as a commissioner on the Heritage Preservation Commission and was a vice chair on the Planning Commission. During his time on the Planning Commission, Martin played a role in many projects around Hastings.

“The Hudson Manufacturing building, the Riverfront Renaissance, projects along Vermillion Street, and development on the west side of town, I feel I really honed my skills by partnering with contractors, developers, and residents, hearing their concerns and being able to reach an agreement that made sense for the city and made sense for the project. I really was able to see the process that made me really want to get involved at a higher level, and that's where I'm at here running for city council,” explained Martin. He believes his time on the commissions adds to his qualifications to be part of city council.

If elected to council, what would Martin hope to accomplish?

“I think our police department would really benefit from Community Service Officers. CSOs are, in my opinion, integral to a law enforcement agency. They free up our sworn personnel to maintain a proactive presence in town. They allow them to respond to more criminal-in-nature type calls for service, and the CSOs can respond to the ordinance violations, found property, found animals, things like that,” he said. “Shifting focus to our fire department. I know we've struggled for quite some time now with staffing, and many of you may not know but Hastings is one of the largest fire service areas in the state of Minnesota. So, I really think we need to have a sitdown conversation with the chief and his staff and ask those questions. What's working? What isn't? Would a fulltime model potentially be an option for our fire department, and what that might look like?”

A second topic from Martin is that of fiscal responsibility.

“I think there's been some questionable decisions as of late. The economy right now is what it is, we're all seeing it. As the elected officials who are responsible for public dollars, we need to ensure that the decisions being made are as fiscally responsible as possible,” said Martin.

Parks would be a priority. “Our parks need attention, and we can make that easier to fund if we make some changes to our park dedication fund. We also need to shift our focus away from just the downtown area. There are other parts of our city that, in my opinion, are in disrepair. Many of our park structures are behind in replacement schedules for equipment.”

Dave Pemble has been an active resident of Hastings, Minn. for 62 years. Over the decades, Pemble has done a variety of volunteering for the community, from cleaning up the flood damage back in the late 60’s, hosting the Rivertown Days parade for nine years with his wife, Dolores Pemble, and for the last five years he has been a board member at Lakeside Cemetery.

Pemble was involved in the school district for more than seven years, spending much of that time working with the facilities committee to develop a plan for a bond proposed in 2017 for over $40 million. Pemble said repairs were needed, and the last facility upgrade had taken place in 2009. To assure that the bond would go through, Pemble ran for Hastings School Board, and served four years there.

“For kids in the school system you need not only the educational, but counseling service that’s available,” said Pemble. “The years that I was on the school board, we increased our counseling numbers and provided outside counseling service to the school district in addition to the counselors in the schools.”

The candidate said his family talked him into running for City Council, citing his community attachment, experience, and understanding of the needs of the community.

“The time that I’ve been involved over the decades, city, school district and private, those things have well set me up to have an understanding of multimillion dollar operations, big contracts, looking at more than just the short information on a piece of paper,” said Pemble. “If I’m part of some organization, I give 100 percent.”

For six years, Pemble was on the Hastings Public Safety Advisory Commission (P.S.A.C) and was also on the Hastings Police Reserves for 25 years. In addition to that, he participated on the 2030 Comprehensive Plan committee to help develop guidelines for land use, expansion, transportation, infrastructure, and other aspects of the community.

Pemble said Hastings needs growth, and he wants to support businesses in town that pay living wages with benefits to draw people to the community. Pemble said this is how the city can remain competitive as a southern suburb of the Twin Cities, while nearby towns continue broadening.

“We don’t have a Target or Menard’s here, people drive to Cottage Grove for that,” said Pemble. “I’m very grateful for the new Fleet Farm.”

Another piece that is important to Pemble, is advocating for the city. He said he will be the voice for the citizens when it comes to projects like the Highway 61 rebuild, and the Metropolitan Council Construction of the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“We have an aging sewer treatment plant,” said Pemble. “In the next few years, it will be moving out on East 10th Street. There will be a big impact in the roads because of additional piping, pumping stations, new sewer laid in to change that facility out to a newer one. We need folks aware that this is coming.”

Professionally, Pemble worked as a lead nuclear machinist at Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant. He said it was the kind of job where no mistakes could be made, and employees were trained on how to communicate most effectively.

Pemble has been with his wife, Dolores, for over 40 years. Dolores Pemble does custom sewing, alterations, repairs, and fittings at the Spool House in Hastings. The Pemble’s have four daughters, and three grandchildren.

Tom Wright is a family man, veteran, local business co-owner, and former Executive Director for Hastings Community TV.

The idea to run for a political office has been a dream of Wright’s since high school. He said the reasons for running are plentiful. He wanted a way to give back to his community, while setting an example for his seven children to go after their passions.

“I also wanted to become a doer instead of a talker,” said Wright. “I think it’s easy to sit back and critique government and make comments on social media, and I’m guilty of it myself, but at some point, if we really want to help, we should step up and match our actions with our words.”

His campaign focuses on four areas including recruitment and retention of high-quality city staff; mending a divided community; strengthening the relationship between the city and the school district and expanding winter recreation options for kids. Wright said the community feel is important to the identity of Hastings.

“I feel our community has been divided by politics,” said Wright. “I’d like to look into ways, events and messaging that could mend the community and give us a more positive vibe.”

Wright has a blended family with his wife Melanie. Their youngest children are twin 8-yearold girls, and their oldest is a 23year-old son. Wright said his children get him involved in the community, and he regularly attends local events. Melanie Wright also manages his campaign and has supported him throughout the process.

The candidate has also been a board member of Hastings Family Service at the YMCA, as well as for a local theater company. He has been part of the Rotary club, volunteered to coach special Olympics, as well as coaching youth soccer for four years. Wright founded the Memorial Day March for Them, an annual walk along the Great River Road on Memorial Day. This was inspired by Wright’s desire to do more for those who died in combat. He spent three years in the Army from 19982001, and then four-and-a-half years in the Minnesota National Guard.

Wright worked at Hastings Community TV for 15 years. He started as a producer and reporter, eventually becoming the executive director. He said his time there was a blessing and gave him great experiences and friends. Three years ago, he moved on to something new, and joined his wife with her business, Method Organization Co. The company does estate sales and moving.

Educationally, Wright attended Brown College and received an associate degree in radio broadcasting, and a Bachelor of Science in communication.

He said his background gives him multiple perspectives that could be useful for City Council. Wright said: “I have my experience as a reporter with HCTV, reporting on City Council and city matters, and working with city officials and staff. I’ve got a good look at behind the scenes and how it all works. Also, the perspective as a parent raising youth in this community and now as a local business owner.”

Bruce Karnick and Brooke Shepherd contributed to this story.

Ian Martin

Dave Pemble

Tom Wright