Oct. 21—BEMIDJI — John Carlson is unopposed as he seeks his second term representing District 5 on the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners.
Carlson, 71, was
first elected to the provincial council in 2022.
He moved to Bemidji in 1971 to attend BSU, where he earned a degree in corporate finance.
He worked as a chartered accountant and owned an insurance agency until 2017; he is currently semi-retired. Carlson lives with his wife in Bemidji, where their two children also live and raise their family.
From 2011 to 2012, Carlson served in the Minnesota Senate and remains proud of his time in the Capitol, where he drove consensus to get 28 bills passed.
Carlson says the main issues facing Beltrami County in the coming year are completing the new jail on budget, balancing the 2025 county budget while trying to keep the levy under 7%, solving workforce shortages and improving roads and bridges through a five-year priority. planning and addressing mental health issues in adults and children.
He said the board’s most impactful decisions during its first term were approving the jail project and a local option sales tax to finance the new jail, joint airport zoning reviews, establishing a Housing Trust Fund and a Opioid Settlement Fund Committee, and remodeling the public health structure. space in the Community Services Center.
