Editor's note: Nick Schmeichel has also filed sufficient signatures to be placed on the April 13 ballot for the position of City Council member, Foster reported Friday.

BROOKINGS – Nate Holden has filed paperwork to run for a council seat on the Brookings City Council, according to City Clerk Bonnie Foster.

“I just decided it was my time to voice my opinion or get in there and try to do something about it,” Holden said.

Two three-year council seats are up for re-election April 13. They are currently held by Patty Bacon and Nick Wendell. The mayor’s three-year seat is also up for re-election. Keith Corbett is currently the mayor.

Holden works in the parts department at Einspahr Auto Plaza.

He said he’s been paying attention to how “the city council has reacted in the last year,” and felt they were giving off the perception they weren’t listening to the public, especially on “one decision not necessarily of the people, and so I just got to the point where I think we need somebody in there who’s gonna listen to the people.”

He has gotten the impression members of the public don’t feel they are being listened to by the current council. 

“I thought about what have I seen from the council over the years that I’ve lived in Brookings, and I’ve seen other times where it seems that the councils in the past have had a kind of narrow tunnel vision of what they’re doing and not necessarily that it’s something that the city wants or that the people want, but it’s something that somebody wanted and they went that way,” Holden said.

Holden is the second to file for a seat. Current councilor Ope Niemeyer is running for the mayor’s seat. 

Deadline for candidates to file their paperwork to run is 5 p.m. Feb. 26 at the City Clerk’s Office, Brookings City & County Government Center, 520 Third St., Suite 230.