ELGIN – Five candidates hoping to claim the District 1 seat on the Comanche County Board of Commissioners recently made their pitches to voters.
Republican candidates Dr. Hank Hasenbeck, Ryan John, Trent Logan, Chad Maguire and Craig Tracht introduced themselves during the Comanche County GOP’s meetand- greet event, which took place July 30 in Elgin Public Schools’ fine arts building. The sixth candidate, Kevin Turpin, was unable to attend the event because he was out of town.
The candidates come from a variety of backgrounds. Hasenbeck is an Elgin-based veterinarian, and John is a military veteran with experience in both the financial sector and agricultural management.
Logan is a veteran of the U.S. Army and a small-business owner, and Maguire works on power lines for the City of Duncan.
Tracht, who was a heavy-equipment mechanic in the Army, is currently employed as the public works supervisor for the Town of Fletcher. He is also chief of the Fletcher Volunteer Fire Department and a reserve police officer for the town.
Turpin launched a successful commercial and residential construction company which has evolved into other ventures, including a cow-calf operation and commercial rental properties, he said in a June 29 post on his campaign’s Facebook page.
Generating additional revenue The candidates attending the event fielded questions on a variety of topics, including their ideas for generating additional revenue for county projects.
Hasenbeck said he thought county officials should seek additional federal grants.
“The county commissioner can apply and press for more federal funding that we have not been doing for a long time,” he said. “And that’s what I’m going to do.”
John said if he is elected, he will focus on creating incentives that would attract new businesses to Comanche County.
“Keep the economy growing,” he said. “I think everybody here knows that when the economy quits growing, the economy starts dying.”
But Logan, who serves as the interim commissioner for District 1, said commissioners aren’t responsible for bringing more tax dollars into the county.
“Of course we want to work with economic development committees for all municipalities, trying to bring businesses in. Of course,” he said. “But ad valorem and property taxes don’t increase the budget we have to fix our roads.”
In Oklahoma, counties fund their road projects with the revenue from fuel, motor vehicle and gross production taxes. The Oklahoma Tax Commission collects those tax revenues from each county, then applies a formula for the collections to distribute the money to each county.
Tracht, who used to work for District 1, said officials should prioritize the county’s needs over its wants. As an example, he spoke about paving county roads with asphalt instead of using oil and chip, a method that prolongs a road’s life by sealing the surface and preventing it from breaking apart.
“Asphalt costs about six times more than oil and chip,” Tracht said. “Asphalt is nicer, but what we need are working roads that aren’t falling apart because they haven’t been properly maintained.”
He said some county departments can apply for grants to fund road improvements and other projects.
Maguire said if he is elected, he will inspect county roads to see which ones need repairs. He added that he would ask one of his employees to research possible grants for road improvements.
“I will have somebody dedicated to looking for money that we can get,” he said.
Filling an unexpired term Logan and the five other candidates are vying to replace former Commissioner John O’Brien, who stepped down earlier this year after pleading no contest to two misdemeanor charges as part of a plea agreement. The remaining charges against O’Brien were dismissed.
A special election to choose O’Brien’s successor is set for Aug. 27. No Democrats are running, so whoever wins the GOP race will claim the seat.