WWII vet on the ballot again

• Fabian Deutsch

Julie Buntjer/Daily Globe Fabian Deutsch is on the ballot again this year in Magnolia, seeking yet another term as the community’s mayor. The World War II veteran who took part on Southwest Minnesota Honor Flight in 2010 constructed the town’s veterans memorial.

Talk about it

MAGNOLIA — Fabian Deutsch has served as mayor of Magnolia in eastern Rock County for 18 of the 22 years he’s lived there.

While it may not be the longest tenure of a Minnesota mayor, Deutsch — a World War II veteran — is certainly one of the older candidates to campaign. He’s seeking another two-year term today and, as is the case most years, his name is the only one on the ballot for Magnolia’s mayoral post.

With any luck he’ll be sworn in again in January; he’ll celebrate his 85th birthday a month later. That looming birthday was part of the reason he came close to calling it quits this fall, as he held out until just half an hour before the deadline to file for the post.

“I belong to (Southwest) Regional Development and I couldn’t serve on that if I wasn’t mayor,” Deutsch said, adding that he wanted to continue to serve on the nine-county economic development commission.

Economic development is something Deutsch is rather familiar with. He’s seen a new Eastern Farmers Cooperative fertilizer plant be constructed in town, and continues to watch the progress on the New Vision feed mill just west of Magnolia.

“We’re just a small town here —112 people, you know,” he said from his kitchen counter Monday afternoon.

It may be a small town, but it’s been bustling. Under Deutsch’s leadership, the community constructed a campground, complete with sewer and water lines, added a water tower and new lagoon, and resealed its streets in the last decade.

“With all of the building going on, our campground is full,” chimed in Sue, Deutsch’s wife of 20 years. Usage of the campground has netted the community at least $1,000 extra a month — it’s been as high as $2,500.

Deutsch also took it upon himself to build a veterans memorial for the community. It is located near the entrance to the campground, and features the names of local veterans as well as some of those who grew up nearby.

Of course, there’s always more work to be done. Deutsch would like to see more businesses on Broadway, but perhaps most pressing is the post office issue. Magnolia is one of many small communities in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa to face potential post office closure. There will be another meeting in Magnolia next week, he said, wishing out loud that more people will come. The turn-out for the last meeting wasn’t that great.

“I’d just love to keep the post office going,” Deutsch said.

He’d also like to see the campground expanded, with spaces large enough for slide-out campers to park there.

“I am kind of proud of the town,” he said. “We’ve had a few mistakes like every other town.”

Those mistakes, he said, were not annexing land to ensure both the feed mill and water tower were built within the city limits. They were built outside of town, which left the city without the additional tax revenue.

The largest employer in town is Southwest Youth Services, which has 35 full-time employees and 10 part-timers. The facility provides counseling, schooling, housing and meals for troubled teenage males. Deutsch said about 60 percent of the clients hail from South Dakota’s Department of Corrections.

As mayor, Deutsch is supportive of not only the businesses, but the people who call Magnolia home. In his nine terms in office, he’s only missed one city council meeting. Once, after falling off a ladder and breaking several ribs, the council even came to him, conducting the monthly meeting in the Deutsch home.

With a four-member council, Deutsch only casts a vote in the event of a tie, and he can’t recall when he’s ever had to be in the tie-breaking role.

As mayor, Deutsch is paid $100 per meeting — money he said is a great help for a couple of retired people living on fixed incomes. The Deutsches have a combined 31 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. They moved to Magnolia from separate directions before marriage — he was originally from Ellsworth and she was living in Luverne.

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.

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