Gary Conrath, Waseca’s newest city council member

It was a campaign that ran a little on the quieter side, but the evening of Jan. 7, Waseca’s newest council member, Gary Conrath was sworn in to a four-year term.

Conrath, who graduated from Waseca High School in 1973, has been a very active member of the Waseca community his entire life. A resident of the northeast part of town, he’s watched both the city of Waseca and his family change and grow. His wife of 49 years is Rhonda. Jeremy, his oldest son who is also on the city council is 49, his second son Ted is 40. His daughter Jessica is 36 and his fourth child Josh is 35. All four children also graduated from Waseca. His boys were active in Waseca wrestling and football, said Conrath, “Jeremy didn’t play football his senior year, but he did everything else.” The boys played baseball as well.

Said Conrath, “I worked for Waseca city utilities for 44 years as an electric line foreman, from 1979 until 2016. I had to step down while they built a new public safety building because I was helping with that.” He also served with the fire department for 42 years: 12 as chief and 18 as assistant chief. He was a Waseca school board member from 1994 to 2004. He once ran for mayor but was a few hundred votes short of winning.

His successful run for city council was done with no advertising or door-to-door politicking. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he was receiving immune therapy for cancer treatment. He describes immune therapy as, “A lighter version of chemotherapy; the doctors inject chemicals into the body.” Conrath feels the treatments went well: he hopes a PET scan early in February will show he is cancer free.  

As far as his future work on the city council goes, Conrath regards himself as a rule follower: “We have rules and regulations in this society for a reason, they’re to protect me and everyone else.” He also stated concerns the Waseca City Council might not be adhering to Roberts’ Rules of Order, a set of protocols and practices meant to ensure meetings run smoothly and all voices are heard. 

He says his first order of business is to acknowledge the excellent employees the City of Waseca has and how good they are at their jobs. “Waseca has a great staff and we’ve got to use those resources. When I worked for the city, I couldn’t be on boards or commissions, now I can be on anything I want and I want to maximize what we’ve got.” He also says, “Compromise is key, no one will get everything they want all of the time, sometimes an issue needs to be slept on or just waited on. The next day sometimes people reconsider, and deals can be made. Everyone’s got to be patient.” He used the example of an experience during his time as city fire chief. In a middle school hallway, he came across a replica of a jungle made entirely of paper. His immediate reaction was that the structure was a dangerous fire hazard which should be removed immediately. He knew students had worked hard to build it and there were good intentions behind it. With some time and discussion, he remembers, a suitable compromise was reached. Remembering that all parties were satisfied with the solution, he commented,“If I can do it that way every time, I will.”