Thank you for asking about me and our other candidates for city offices. My name is Ruth Marth and I was born in Tracy, MN, and raised in Walnut Grove and graduated from Walnut Grove High School in 1981. I have lived in Walnut Grove or the surrounding area for most of my life except for 13 years that I lived in Wisconsin. My father’s family (Schultz) has been established in rural Walnut Grove for over 100 years as farmers. My mother’s family (Vickerman) were farmers as well in the Tracy area. I have 4 adult daughters who live in Wisconsin with families of their own. I have a background of customer service with many years in the food service industry and trucking, having recently retired from trucking in September 2026. I have also worked in senior care in nursing home settings and currently have started as a dietary aide at Country View Senior Living in Walnut Grove. I have always gravitated towards assisting my elders and people in need of assistance as my family history has been influential in my career choices.
Why did you decide to run for a seat on the council?
My decision to run for City Council was a choice I have thought about for a few years since having returned to my childhood home twenty plus years ago to be closer to my father after he had a stroke and moved into a nursing home. As a small town girl and having traveled 48 states as an over the road truckdriver sharing most of that time as a team driver with my husband who passed away a year and a half ago I have seen many communities like ours change over the years and some disappearing because of no interest in city government and community. I feel that now that I have the time to focus on making a change to our community and enhancing what we have to offer. Having been a business owner as well, I felt the need to step in and hopefully add a point of view and some hopefully valuable outlooks on being a member of our business community.
What are some aspects of your town that you would like to see improved?
I think we need to get more involvement between the city and our citizens with listening to our citizens more and being an open and transparent government and helping to bring necessities to our community. I’d like to see us be more proactive in the essence of our small town atmosphere by supporting the Christmas lights in our city park, supporting our local businesses and encouraging improvements and sustainability for the essentials for our community such as groceries and convenience store, and a eating establishment other than our local bar and grill run by the city. We need to attract more younger families to our community to sustain our population. Yes, we are a small and quiet town, but we need to be a safe and growing community as well. I would like to see better policing of our community by law enforcement that is local and available on a full time scale. That adds much value to the safety of our streets and homes.
