Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of four stories featuring candidates for Brookings City Council. Two council posts are up for grabs in the April 11 election. Vying for them are Isaiah Croatt, Dan Hansen, Ope Niemeyer and Nick Schmeichel.

BROOKINGS – There are goals and new projects that Dan Hansen wants to “see through,” so he’s running for another three-year seat on the Brookings City Council.

Hansen came from Aberdeen to attend South Dakota State University, becoming a pharmacist and marrying his wife, Jess, an economics major. They went to Wisconsin for two years and came back to Brookings in 2007 to raise their four kids, now 8 years old and younger, closer to their families.

“This is really home for us,” he said.

Hansen is the assistant dean for student services at SDSU and still teaches pharmacy classes.

He was elected to the council in 2014 and has served on three boards: Brookings Municipal Utilities, Brookings Health System, and Brookings Economic Development Corporation. On the personal side, he’s active in church with Knights of Columbus and as an usher and greeter.

“I try to be very respectful of my family’s time as well. I really wear three hats: my work hat, my council hat and my husband/dad hat,” Hansen said.

Those hats are one reason he wants to stay on the council.

“I’ve enjoyed the last three years on council. I feel like we’ve done a lot of positive things in those three years,” he said, mentioning long-range planning and some of the task forces.

“When I came on council, we were a very reactive council. We waited for things to come to us and really tried to solve problems at the time they were occurring versus now I feel like we’re slowly making that switch to being better about taking a long-term approach.

“I have a unique voice, both as a person with a young family, but also with a health care background ... that’s important to make sure the council is made up of people from demographics in Brookings to make sure that all the voices are really heard,” Hansen said.

“I feel I’m the type of person who really likes to learn as much as I can about the issue or what’s going on before I make up my mind,” he said, adding he asks questions, reads his council packet, and talks to people “so that I can hear both sides of the story and really try to make sure that I educate myself before I decide on how I’m gonna vote. That’s how I approach everything, whether that’s personal life or professional life; that’s just the way that I’m made.”

Hansen knows Brookings is having trouble drawing businesses and keeping the ones here due to a workforce shortage. He wants to build the workforce with education and skill development, whether that’s at SDSU or Lake Area Tech.

He also wants to retain more students and recruit others to come back to the town or the state.

One way to do that is to promote quality of life by showcasing events such as Downtown at Sundown, affordable housing, “our amazing Park and Recreation system, or what we’re trying to do with the Mental Health Task Force,” he said.

Hansen believes the Comprehensive Master Plan is important so the city can plan for the future.

“Where’s the next housing development, where do we need the infrastructure to go, where do the utilities need to lead, do we need to look at drainage issues? ... Input from all the shareholders will be important as we plan to look at how Brookings grows here into the future,” he said.

Task forces – for mental health and affordable housing, to name two – will help “to bring in other members of the community to take an active role in helping to solve some of the issues that we face versus just the seven people in the council,” Hansen said, “so we have a better idea of what direction to take.”

Brookings needs to embrace diversity, different points of view and help people feel like Brookings “is a place they can be successful and continue to grow and thrive,” he said.

He likes what the city has done with the bicycle lanes and he calls the proposed Master Plan, “a roadmap of moving forward.”

“The DOT (Marketplace) property, I think it’s good that we’ve made the agreements with the Bender company. ... So it’s hopefully something that will move forward and really won’t require as much council attention,” he said.

“Brookings is really the envy of the region. A number of our peer cities want to be as successful as Brookings has been. We can’t just settle for being one of the best communities in the Midwest, we have to look for ways to continue to invest in our community and be successful,” Hansen said.

“Words are important, but I think a lot of it’s gonna have to do with the actions that we take, both as a council and also as a community,” Hansen said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.