Aaron Viebrock is running for re-election as Douglas County Public Utility District Commissioner 3.

Viebrock began serving his first term with the board of commissioners in 2017 and is the current board president.

The Waterville native says he's seeking a second term on the board after being initially encouraged to run by a former Douglas PUD commissioner who served in the position for 30 years.

“The reason that I ran in the first place is because of the commissioner who held my seat before me, Jim Davis. He’s a longtime family friend who lives out by Coulee City and farms wheat there like my family does. So since Jim talked me into doing this the first time, I’ve found out that I really enjoy serving the community. And we have so many continuing challenges at the PUD, now that I’ve been into it for a term and am understanding things more, I really want to see them all through.”

It’s a rapidly changing time for the PUD according to Viebrock, and there are numerous issues facing the utility which could all have significant impacts on the citizens of Douglas County in the future.

VIebrock says one of the most critical items the PUD is currently navigating, is the influx of corporate interests with large-volume power requirements, such as Microsoft, who are establishing within the region.

“We want to serve Microsoft but I just don’t think they should get their power from our resources. I don’t want to shift all of that risk to our residential rate payers and we want to keep capacities up at our dam in order to serve organic growth in the county. These companies with large load demands are going to take and take until there’s no more, and we want to preserve our resources that the residents of Douglas County have paid for.”

Viebrock is running on the November ballot against Rock Island Mayor Randy Agnew.

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