Harlow won't seek re-election to board

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

MONTROSE - After one term on the Lee County Board of Supervisors, but more than 40 years of public service, Supervisor Rich Harlow has said 2022 will be his last year in public service.

After serving roles in both volunteer and elected posts, Harlow said it's time to do somethings he's wanted to do in his personal life, including some travel.

"I'm looking forward to finishing out the rest of the term this year and continue to do the best I can for the people of Lee County. But after this year, I want to retire from public service," Harlow said.

Harlow served on the Fort Madison City Council in the 80s. As a city councilman, he also served as mayor pro tem for a term. He's also served on the city's parks and recreation board and the Fort Madison Aquinas Athletic Board, in addition to his four-year term as a supervisor.

Harlow was elected in 2018 and started his term in 2019 after defeating Republican Jim Steffen in the general election.

Harlow said there is more involved in being a supervisor than the weekly meetings and his advice for those who are considering a run is to be committed to the process.

"Some people think it's one meeting a week and it absolutely isn't. You have other commitments - committees and meetings and then you have to look at roads, find out what's going on with the ambulance, be present and be committed," Harlow said.

"And be thick-skinned. You can't have a thin skin in this business."

Harlow lost his wife halfway through this term and said he wants to travel and maybe even become "one of those snowbirds".

"We've got another storm coming in this week. Some people go south for the winter so maybe we'll do that for a couple months of the year," Harlow said. "I want to be able to have time to do things like that."

His other advice was realizing that you can't please all the people all of the time.

"It would be nice if you could give everyone what they want, but you can't. It would be nice if you could do that without raising taxes, but you can't. Be available to the voters and the citizens and keep your cool. Don't get upset and listen to everyone's opinion before you make an informed decision."

Harlow said the ambulance service has been one of the biggest challenges facing the county and said the vote was close with former Supervisor Gary Folluo and Rick Larkin voting for a private run ambulance service, while Harlow, Fedler, and Matt Pflug voting for the county-owned option.

"There's certainly been some challenges there, but I'm looking forward to continuing to work on that through this year."

He said the county also needs to get through the pandemic and get salaries comparable to other counties so Lee County can be competitive in finding those employees.

No Democrat has come forward from District 3 to run for the seat. Pete Seyb has announced his intentions to run for the seat from the Republican side.