BROOKINGS (10-16-26) — Brookings Radio and the Brookings Beacon continue election 2026 coverage. Today we profile Brookings City Council candidate Wade Wantoch.
Wantoch is retired, has lived in Brookings roughly 30 years, and worked at Larson’s and 3-M — now known as Solventum.
He said affordable housing is a top concern for him… “We don’t really have a lot of affordable housing in Brookings. There’s tons of new housing construction; but let’s be honest — these houses are not what we would traditionally call ‘affordable.’ We’re looking at $400 to $500 thousand for a lot of these houses. And the reason they do that is, because being a manufacturing center, we have thousands of engineers. And I appreciate these engineers. They help those factories be successful, but they also make a good deal of money which allows them to buy these very expensive homes.”
He said he’d like to see an expansion of less-expensive housing options in Brookings.
Wantoch said his concerns about housing extend to the homeless as well… “Brookings does not have a homeless shelter, and there are people that — for whatever reason — are sleeping in their cars, maybe on the streets somewhere. We can do better. We can maybe create some kind of shelter. Right now my understanding is that they’re bussed down to Sioux Falls. They’re just kind of pushed off on someone else. Well, we could take a little responsibility for our fellow human beings and care for them a little bit.”
Wantoch said he represents a different kind of choice… “If the voters are 100 percent happy with how things are now and have been in the recent past, then by golly — stay the course. But if you want to try something different, get a different voice in there, maybe a voice that represents and understands a different segment of our population than has been historically represented then vote for ‘the Wade’.”
Two, three-year city council seats are up for grabs.
The complete interview with Wade Wantoch is posted at https://www.brookingsradio.com/news/interview-brookings-city-council-candidate-wade-wantoch/.
Coverage on Wantoch and the other Brookings City Council candidates is also featured in this week’s edition of the Brookings Beacon.
The election is November 3.
— Brookings Radio News
