The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 13, 2006

25-year-old mayor? Only in Le Center

Katy Young

Le Center — Lance Wetzel’s campaign to be mayor of Le Center had none of the activity that surrounded this season’s campaigns: endless travel, speeches, phone calling. The suspense, the expense, the adrenaline, the exhaustion — none of that either.

“All I did was, go up there and put my name in, got 50 signs and one ad in the paper. My uncles paid for the signs.”

The phone only rang a couple of extra times before election day, just neighbors calling to request a yard sign. He spent the weekend before the election out in the woods with his dad, uncle and cousins, hunting deer.

He won anyway. Election day ended with Wetzel taking 467 votes. Incumbent mayor Bob McMillen took 333.

“It’s a shock to me,” Wetzel said.

But not too shocking. He was hunting again during the weekend.

The new mayor-elect of Le Center is just 25 years old. He graduated from Le Center High School in June 1999 and joined the volunteer fire department in February 2000.

“I’ve been on the fire department for 61⁄2 years, and I know a lot of people in town.”

He was the general contractor for his own newly built house, using the help of many other Le Center firemen in the building trades.

He works with his uncles Gary and Bruce Meidlinger at Armar Corp. in Le Center doing custom countertops. The job keeps him close to home, which has been important to him since the birth of his son Landon, now 14 months old.

“I wanted to make (city government) more of a deal that the people can have more of a say in.

“I had been thinking about it for about the last two years,” he said about running for office. “I figured I’d try. Never expected to get it.”

His uncles at work were “kind of surprised, but not as surprised as I was.”

They may soon regret launching Wetzel’s public service career.

The incumbent mayor of Le Center, Bob McMillen, said the mayor’s position requires very understanding employers because there are three to four meetings per month beyond the regular council meetings, involving planning and zoning, the economic development authority and meetings with new business owners.

“It’s a time-consuming position,” McMillen said.

He had no yard signs out and was willing to serve another term, but did he have the mayoral fire in the belly?

“Not particularly,” he said. “We tried to get a couple members of the council to run, but no one would do it.”

“There are a lot of plans on the board, but the council carries on the business of the city,” McMillen said. And, he added, the mayor acts as a referee, running meetings but rarely voting.

“I’m sure he’ll do all right,” McMillen said. “He’s surrounded by some very good people who will show him how to do things.

“Chris Collins, the city administrator, is very effective and he’ll take him (Wetzel) under his wing.”

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