Eggler begins first term as mayor

After serving on the city council for the past 12 years, Dan Eggler decided to run for mayor, after longtime Mayor Chris McKern decided against running.
In November, voters elected Eggler in an uncontested election.
Eggler explained he had always given some thought, about running for mayor one day, when McKern decided against running, and when he heard McKern wasn’t running for another term, he decided to run saying “I talked it over with my family because I need support, I’m not doing this on my own.”
After finding out no one wasn’t running for the seat, he officially decided to run.
“It was kind of last minute,” Eggler said. “And if someone ran against me I’m fine with that too.”
What’s ahead for the city council?
“Just keep working on all of the projects we’ve been working on and finish some of them and get some of them rolling into the next phase….but no surprises,” Eggler said.
On the top of the list for the city, will be building a new water tower, for the south side of town.
Eggler explained when the new Egan property was being built, it was quickly realized there wasn’t enough water capacity to meet fire code, for the company’s insurance.
A temporary variance was granted, which will allow the 12.5 acre site to be built, and now a water tower is expected to be built by the city in order to have future homes and businesses built in the area.
“That opens up more property… because people couldn’t build because there wasn’t enough water pressure,” Eggler said.
Eggler said the city increased the cost for water some, and are working with the funds the water fund has, along with looking at funding from the state to complete the project.
“It’s good that there’s expansion, but sometimes you just have to react,” Eggler said.
City owned dispensary?
With the legalization of cannabis, local municipalities have the opportunity to open their own city-owned dispensaries similar to municipal owned liquor stores, like in Kasson and West Concord.
So does the new mayor support the idea?
“There’s so much uncertainty with the rulings with the state,” Eggler said.
While he didn’t completely rule out the idea, Eggler said he thinks the city should wait for the state to “continue to figure it out,” first.
“Let’s make sure we know everything,” Eggler said.
Future of Police Department?
During one of his final meetings as mayor, McKern suggested the city look at the future of its police department, including potentially having a partnership with the Sheriff’s Office.
“I’ve debated this quite a bit over the last three weeks but I think it’s something that needs to be said and thrown out there not as a threat or even something I would fully support but I think the conversation needs to be had about our relationship with Dodge County and the city of Kasson probably on many fronts but mainly on law enforcement,” Mayor Chris McKern said.
When asked about it Eggler said “You don’t want to jump to any conclusions on that obviously.”
Eggler explained his goal is to reach out, and work with the county, to discuss how they can work together.
“See if there is something we need to do down the road,” Eggler said.
Eggler said, if the city were to decide to go with a contract model with the Sheriff’s Office, similar to what other communities have, such as Dodge Center “ it could be a five, ten year plan who knows but we want to open up the lines.”
“We want to open up the lines of communication and keep them open,” Eggler said.