Stacey Hawkins
Editor’s note: Every week the Cook County News- Herald is introducing candidates running for Cook County Commissioner.
My name is Stacey Hawkins and I am announcing that I have filed as a candidate for Cook County Commissioner from District 2. Cook County has been my home since I was born. My great-grandparents moved to Cook County in the late 1800s and my grandmother was born at their homestead on the Meridian Road in 1900. Even though I left the county for a few years while I attended college after high school, I knew from a young age that this was where I always wanted to live and call home.
I feel extremely fortunate that life events allowed that to happen. I have three children who were raised here and three grandchildren that are growing up here now.
I have followed local politics from an early age. My father was the District 3 county commissioner while I was growing up. Local issues were a frequent topic of dinner conversation and I reveled in the back and forth of decision making with which my dad struggled to ensure he was looking out for the best interest of not just his district, but the entire county. My passion for debate of ideas and interest in seeking out different opinions, I credit to him.
Like many people who live here, I have held various jobs, often more than one at a time. I have been an employee of various local private enterprises and a family business partner with my sister at the World’s Best Donuts in Grand Marais. My other grandmother started the World’s Best Donuts while working a minimum wage job in 1969. I have also been a school district employee, and I am currently a county employee working in the Auditor’s office.
I decided to run for county commissioner because I am concerned about the future of our county and I believe I have a perspective that is missing on the current board. Cook County has always been a working town where young, old, rich, and not so wealthy lived together and respected each other. I am concerned that our government spending has grown too fast and that our local economic base has not kept up. We have fewer entrepreneurs and we have fewer young families living here. The poverty rate in Cook County is over 13 percent. We have 261 children eligible for free or reduced lunches. Cook County has the second lowest wage income in the state of Minnesota. We have one of the highest median home values in the state. Just those facts alone should be very concerning to all of the residents, visitors and us alike.
We need to be proactive in developing our economy to sustain us for the long haul. We need to remember that tax and levy dollars are other people’s money. We need to be judicious in our spending decisions. There will be hard choices to make, and it will not be easy. I want to tell you that I feel confident that I am not afraid of asking the hard questions and doing the cost-benefit analysis required to make good and informed decisions.
I ask for your support and I welcome your ideas and thoughts. I invite you to call me at 218-370- 9441 or email me at skizzle0261@gmail.com.
Thank you.
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