Cauwels desires to be a Minnehaha Co. Commissioner

Nichole Cauwels is a resident of Minnehaha County as well as a farmer’s wife, mother of four, small business owner, trailblazer, dentist, dog lover and crazy goat lady.

Cauwels was born and raised in Sioux Falls by her parents, Mary and Randy (of Garretson). Her mother worked in telecommunications and father was a pipefitter/welder who specialized in nuclear power plants. Both of her parents are union members and spent a good deal of their time fighting for workers’ rights and safety. This attitude of looking out for the best interest of others, serving others, putting safety first and inclusion was the culture Cauwels was raised in and these are qualities she maintains today. 

When she learned that private interests are considering using eminent domain that is normally reserved for public utilities to infringe on land owners’ rights and safety, she decided to take action. This lit the fire for her to get involved by running for Minnehaha County Commission.

Cauwels believes in the motto: No Eminent Domain For Private Gain.

“Neither of the proposed pipelines are planned to come within five miles of my land but that doesn’t mean I am OK with my neighbors being bulldozed. The precedent that this would set is really bad. We can’t just expect landowners to give over their ground to anyone who wants to use it for their own profit. So today it’s a dangerous chemical line, what will it be next year and whose land will they use,” Cauwels states.

By attending some County Commission meetings, she also learned that volunteer fire departments are in desperate need of new communication radios due to some federal technology upgrade requirements. These radios cost around $8,000 each. Cauwels believes that tax dollars rather than volunteer’s pockets should be utilized to purchase the radios. After all, isn’t public safety and its funding a primary function of government?

As a job creator and small business owner, Cauwels said she always gives preference to applicants who were part of a 4H program in their youth. She has yet to hire a 4Her that wasn’t a hard worker and a team player. “4H just embodies what it means to be a South Dakotan. Teaching kids to be resourceful, innovative and hard-working while maintaining a heart of inclusion and caring, some of my best memories of childhood are my days spent at the Fair and working the food stand,” she said.

Cauwels believes that the extension office, the 4H program and Minnehaha County (Sioux Empire) Fair are all programs that need to continue and be supported. When she heard there had been a proposal to turn the fairgrounds into a quarry and relocate the fair to some land in Lincoln County, that really concerned her. Cauwelss said, “Lincoln County already has their own Achievement Days and the kids in Minnehaha deserve to have their own. We are the largest county in a heavily ag state, it makes absolutely no sense for Minnehaha to not have a fair. We have to save the fair.””

In the early days of starting her dental practice from scratch, she wasn’t busy right away, so she spent one day a week working in the community health dental clinic operated by the county. As the practice grew and became busier she shifted her giving back to working with programs like Donated Dental and Siouxland Smiles. These programs allowed Dr. Cauwels and her team to give back to elderly patients, pediatric patients and patients undergoing cancer treatments right here in the community.

“Being able to use my skills to change people’s lives reminds me why I went to all those years of college to begin with,” said Dr. Cauwels.

By living on a farm yet running a business in Sioux Falls all while raising two girls and two boys ,she feels she has the insight and the personal experience to be able to look at the big picture. Looking at Minnehaha as a whole and determining how to do the most good for the most people while being fiscally responsible is something she would do when making decisions if elected to the Commission.