“In this job I get a great opportunity to work with the people in the community and get a sense of the things that are important to them.”
For Austin Hayek, the functions he fulfills in his community allow him to interact with farmers on a personal level. His full-time role as Location Lead at the Landus Fort Dodge location allows him to work with farmers and exercise his customer relations skills for one of the most prominent industries in the area.
Austin is a public servant as a Webster County Board Supervisor, where he gets to work across multiple industries and learns what public policy topics his neighbors care about most.
Regardless of which hat Austin wears, residents of District 1 in Webster County, and Fort Dodge area farmers, get their voices heard.
Austin was elected to the Webster County Board of Supervisors in 2022. Growing up on a farm north of Duncombe, working in health and safety positions for various ag companies, and eventually moving back to the homestead to farm himself, Austin has rural values through to his core.
During Austin’s service to Webster County he’s helped ensure bussing to bring kids into Fort Dodge schools as a member of the MIDAS Board, he created a partnership between Duncombe, Vincent and Badger EMT services to help ensure continuity of service and built awareness and education of the watershed authorities through community colleges.
“Government wins are not made because of individual efforts. Collective wins are made based on people coming together and working toward the best solution,” he said.
Although Austin’s political career is still young, his victories are credited to his personability skills and acute sense of knowing how collaboration makes solutions more apparent.
“Especially in the case of rural, we’re dependent on people to step up and be the voice of their constituents. Whether it’s on school board, city council, or the county board, we need people to hear the problems that are being had and see solutions through to the end.”
Austin will work closely with EMT services for the 2024 Webster County agenda. Follow along with the weekly Rural Matters when we do a deep dive on rural emergency services.
Austin lives on his family farm north of Duncombe with his wife, Kylee, and his five children.
Running for office or stepping up to a leadership role in your community can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. If you are interested in learning more about public service opportunities, we want to help. Reach out to Elizabeth.Thompson@landus.ag if you’d like to talk through ways in which Landus can support your journey as a public servant.
Landus is committed to working on the topics and issues most important to our farmers, our customers, our employees, and our communities where we call home. Help us carry your voice and your priorities forward by taking a few minutes to let us know your thoughts in our public policy survey.
