THURSDAY, OCT. 31, 2024 • VOLUME N0. 124 • ISSUE NO. 7 • 1 SECTION • 10 PAGES
Serving Colfax • Mingo • Baxter • Western Jasper County
IT’S A HALLOWEEN SCENE Hundreds come out for Colfax’s Annual Halloween Walk Oct. 22. Businesses lined the downtown with fun themed stops including Ghostbusters, Monopoly, an alien encounter, superheroes and The Wizard of Oz Jamee A. Pierson/Jasper County Tribune
ELECTION 2024
Iowa House District 38 Candidate Q&As
Name: Brad Magg Age: 38 Residence: Colfax Occupation: Owner, Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe & Spring City Pharmacy Office seeking: Iowa House District 38 1. Introduce/Reintroduce yourself to voters and explain why you are running. Magg: As a lifelong resident of Jasper County, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have experienced the amazing support of “Iowa Nice” my entire life. As a Magg child, when word traveled of my passion for baking, community members started ordering baked goods to encourage my interests. That turned into food and meals, which led to me starting Magg Family Catering when I was 14. The amazing educators and administration at Colfax-Mingo Schools went above and beyond to help me succeed. From being understanding with my attendance so I could make deliveries, to teachers tailoring curriculum just for me that aligned to my business interests, to not dropping the Accounting II class despite me being the only student, I will always be forever grateful for public education. And it makes me sick to see the lack of funding and unfunded or underfunded mandates implemented with the obvious goal to make public schools fail. My mother often worked three jobs and still struggled to keep a roof over our
heads when I was growing up. I never would have been able to attend a private school if our local public school had been less desirable. After attending DMACC, at the age of 20 my local banker saw my work ethic and believed in me enough that I was able to buy Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City. Understanding that being successful with a business in a small community is as much, if not more, about how much you support the community than how much the community supports you, I wanted to fill a gap in a community that had nowhere to eat besides Casey’s. So we added food to go along with the ice cream. Passionate about giving back to the community that had given me so much, I ran for the Colfax City Council with the goal of working to build up the community so that it was an attractive place for my friends and classmates to move back to and hopefully so future generations wouldn’t want to leave in the first place. I’m now serving my 15th year on the Colfax City Council. A few years ago our only pharmacy in Colfax closed its doors after over 100 years of being in business. After losing our medical clinic a year or two prior and realizing that an outside entity wouldn’t re-open the kind of pharmacy that our community and every community deserves, myself along with some other local leaders decided to roll up our sleeves and re-open the only pharmacy in Colfax, and the only locally
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Name: Jon Dunwell taxes with fiscal responsibility and purAge: 58 suing the priorities of Iowans. Residence: Newton 2. Several legislative actions have imOccupation: Pastor at Gateway pacted public schools over the past few Church Monroe and director of out- years, to mixed reception from the pubreach and engagement lic. Do you agree with past action? What at The Family Leader sorts of changes do you want to see in the Office seeking: Iowa future? Should input from HD38 school House District 38 districts go into your decision making? 1. Introduce/ReintroDunwell: Education continues to be duce yourself to voters a top priority of the Iowa Legislature. and explain why you are It comprises almost 50 percent of our running. state budget and a significant proporDunwell: My name is tion of property taxes. Recognizing the Jon Dunwell. My wife, importance of teachers, last year we Christie, and I have been made Iowa the fifth highest starting married for 34 years and Dunwell teacher pay in the nation with the fifth live in Newton with lowest cost of living. We’ve also invested our two boys, Addison (23) and Bryce in educational choice for parents, en(20). I’m the pastor of Gateway Church suring each child their optimal learning Monroe, the director of outreach and environment through open enrollment, engagement at The Family Leader, and charter schools and education savings a coach for other nonprofits. I have a accounts. history of community involvement with Bringing efficiency, focus and acthe YMCA, community councils, Meals- countability to government is a crucial On-Wheels, Seniors First, Orange role of legislative leadership. Last year County Sheriff ’s Office, Main Street, we made improvements to our AEAs, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and oth- protecting our investment in special eder organizations. I currently serve as the ucation, bringing greater accountability District 38 state representative and as and coordination with the Department an assistant majority leader in the Iowa of Education, reforming salaries and Shaw Media giving local districts more control. We House. I bring my passion, diverse experi- did this without reducing any funding ence and leadership to Jasper County to and instead provided more dollars for address its current challenges and create students. We also have worked to profuture opportunities. I will continue to tect education from radical political focus upon representing Jasper County’s values, preserving our freedoms, cutting DUNWELL | 5 est. 1851
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