Austin Sigg notes he is the exception.
The 2005 Iola High School graduate native left town briefly for college and a one-year stint in Iraq with the Kansas Army National Guard, intent on returning to his hometown with his young family.
“I’m definitely one of the few in my class that moved back,” he said.
But were it not for his full-time job as a supply sergeant for the Guard, “we wouldn’t be able to make it here,” he said. “And my job really doesn’t have anything to do with my degree.”
“We need to have younger people come back; young, educated people,” he said. “I hadn’t thought too much about it until I had a daughter. Now I think, when she moves off, she’ll never want to come back.”
Finding ways to entice growth in Iola, while still keeping the community an affordable place to live, will be one of Sigg’s priorities if he’s elected to a seat on the Iola City Council.
Voters in Iola’s third ward will choose between Sigg and incumbent Eugene Myrick in the April 7 general election. (See related article on Myrick elsewhere in today’s issue.)
AT 28, SIGG would be among the youngest city council members in Iola’s history, a fact not lost on the folks he’s visited with.
“They like it,” he said. “They said it’s good to get youth in there.”
Community service has been one of Sigg’s goals since he and wife Emily returned to Iola in 2011.
The 2005 IHS graduate enlisted in the National Guard upon finishing high school, knowing that such a move likely would put him overseas at some point. In fact, the 891st Engineer Battalion — whose headquarters company is in Iola — was just returning from its yearlong Iraq stint when he finished his basic training.
Not wanting to miss out, Sigg volunteered to serve overseas.
He was picked to go along with the 287, serving from October 2008 to October 2009.
“That’s just how I was raised,” he said. “We want to do our part to help. That’s why I joined the Guard in war times.”
The Guard duty coincided with Sigg’s studies at Kansas State University, where he majored in food science with a minor in business operations management.
“I should have done that as my major,” he said of his focus on business. “It would have been hard for me” to find a career in or near Iola with his food science degree.
Bad timing interrupted his original plan, to open a meat market.
“I started my degree before (Bolling’s) meat market opened here,” he said. “That was kind of my idea, but they beat me out. I was about a semester away from finishing when they opened their doors.”
He harbors no ill will.
“They’ve done very well,” he said.
But the episode aptly illustrates Iola’s plight, he said. Attracting young, educated professionals is perhaps the city’s biggest challenge, he said.
“Iola’s strength is its people,” he said. “And people are definitely not soft-spoken about what they’re wanting.”
Many have already offered advice on Sigg’s agenda, should he be elected.
“I’ve got to get in there and learn a lot before I do anything,” he said with a laugh.
SIGG THINKS his military background will serve him well.
As supply sergeant, he manages an $8.5 million budget annually.
“When you think of supply, you think of beans and bullets, but we’re spread so thin that really my job is a wide array of things.”
Included in his duties are seeking food and facilities contracts. “Doing more with less.”
He’s eager to see Iola further develop its neighborhood revitalization programs that give property owners a break if they improve their homes.
“When we painted our house, our taxes went up,” he said. “It was like we were almost being punished for keeping our house up. But then you drive around town and you see these dilapidated houses.”
He’s also keenly interested in the thought process behind decisions to do certain capital projects in-house — the sidewalk extension along North State Street, for example — or when the decision is made to hire a company to do the work.
“My wife, when I told her I wanted to run, she said, ‘You know, not every problem is your problem. You can’t fix everything,’” he said. “And I don’t have all the answers. I’m not running on a particular agenda. I just want to do my research and try to make the best decisions.”
Sigg is the son of Iolans Danny and Jan Sigg. He and wife Emily have a young daughter, Elliot.
