Niemeyer wants to continue service for city

Businessman seeking third term on city council

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Editor’s note: This is the third 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 – Ope Niemeyer wants to know what you think, and that’s why he’s running for another three-year term on the Brookings City Council.

“If you’ve got an opinion, I want to know about it, whether or not I vote that direction or not. If I only hear a one-sided story, I might go find other people that haven’t said anything to me and ask ‘em a question,” he said of his philosophy of being a councilman.

Originally from Iowa, Niemeyer came to Brookings to attend South Dakota State University, where he earned an ag business degree and met his wife, Beth, a civil engineer. They have two adult daughters.

The family moved back to Brookings 20 years ago from Pierre, and he started Ope Niemeyer Flooring. Between high school and college, he worked in flooring for a couple of years and “fell back into the flooring business,” he said.

Niemeyer has been elected to the council twice before. He’s been liaison to the Brookings Municipal Utilities board and on the investment committee. On the personal side, Niemeyer has been involved with the Rotarians’ solar oven project and served on various boards with the Methodist church.

Having served six years, Niemeyer was wondering if he should run again. People pointed out he was the only businessman on the council.

“The college education I think is important. I ran my own business for 30 years; I know what it means to deal with a budget. I’m not scared to make hard decisions,” or to give his opinion on what Brookings needs, he said of his qualifications.

“I look at Brookings as a destination. In order to get some of these spots that we have open with some of the employers that we have, we have to have that quality of life that (makes) people say ‘I want to live here.’”

Niemeyer wants to extend streets like 20th Street South and Western Avenue and down to 26th, especially around the elementary school; and connect 15th Street South and Seventh Avenue South.

He’s keeping an eye on the construction on 22nd Avenue and how it will affect the town.

“I know that the 20th Street overpass is a major concern,” he said. “I’d like to see how the traffic flow changes while that’s happening.

“If we do the 20th Street overpass, I’ve been adamant about making sure it’s a public/private thing” with the city, county and east-side business district splitting expenses, since all will benefit, he said.

“Our next step is going to be a half-a-million-dollar investment. If we decide to go on with this, we’re gonna be pretty much all in,” Niemeyer said.

He wants to finish the bike path, put down stripes and educate bikers and drivers.

“Everybody in town needs to know how to deal with bicycles, and bicycles need to know what they’re required also to do,” Niemeyer said.

Niemeyer knows that strategic planning will take Brookings into the future, with recreation, entrepreneurial programs, and keeping housing and utilities affordable.

There are several groups that need attention, Niemeyer said.

“I think space needs for recreation is something we should look at. If we’re not gonna build a recreational facility, we need to look at the facilities that we have and see if there’s anything we can upgrade and maintain,” he said, mentioning the Fifth Street gym, and collaborating with the school district on similar needs.

Whether to tear down the Old Armory was a difficult decision, it’s hard to justify spending $2 million on it when the city has “so many other needs in the Park and Rec department,” he said.

One of Brookings’ biggest problems, he said, is the growing lack of skilled labor.

‘We’re gonna have more people retiring than we’ve got coming back into the workforce. It’s rampant in the Midwest,” Niemeyer said, adding it’s a tough sell to get someone to come to the Midwest if they’re not used to the culture. He thinks talking to high school graduates and finding companies that can employ them and SDSU grads will help.

All those people moving to town need to live somewhere, and it needs to be affordable, Niemeyer explained.

The city needs to look at how it can help with mental health, even if it’s just getting information out to the public, and how to get psychiatrists to come to rural areas. Mental health ties into a growing problem.

“I think, listening to the police chief, that we need to be concerned about the influx of drugs that’s already here. It’s here. Some are looking the other way, but it’s here. And it’s ruining a lot of lives,” Niemeyer said.

He looked back at the years he’s already served.

“It’s been an honor to represent the community. I think I have looked at everything straight and right,” he said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.