By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com

Powers, 52, served on the Hastings City Council from 2000 to 2004 and on the Hastings Municipal Airport Authority Board from 1991 to 1997. He also worked on the Cottonwood Festival, Adams County FairFest and two recent school bonds and has coached a variety of sports in the community.

The Hastings native is the owner/director of the Hastings State Bank, Hastings HVAC, Protex Central, ProWash Car Wash and a variety of family corporations.

He is also the owner/director of Central Finance and Echo Canyon Partners, which are both real estate ventures.

"I'm a very busy person," Powers said at a press conference Friday in the Hastings Utilities board room, "but I'm willing to make the time."

As mayor, Powers said, he would promote job growth and attract more retail businesses to the city. Although he acknowledged no one wants to pay more taxes, he said there are some city projects that need funding.

He thought about running for mayor while he was on the city council but decided against it when then-Mayor Rick Sheehy decided to run again.

"I like Rick, so I didn't challenge him," Powers said. "But then things changed. It has been a hard decision."

Powers believes he can do a better job of running Hastings and plans to put his business sense and experience working for the state auditor to good use in City Hall.

"We have a wonderful city," he said. "(It's) full of great possibilities, full of untapped potential. But possibilities are never realized without experienced, intelligent and respectful leadership.

"As an owner of a number of Nebraska and Iowa businesses employing nearly 200 people, I have learned over the years that the most effective leadership combines and implements all of these assets for the benefit of all."

He added that Hastings is on the "cusp of a potentially huge economic wave. Area grain prices are at an all-time high, local ethanol production at record capacity. Bond rates are at market lows. This should be a perfect time to reassert the power of Hastings as it was in the 1950s through the 1980s."

Those decades were a time when corporate headquarters were based in Hastings, wages were high and business expansion was common, he said.

Powers and his wife, Cheryl, have two teenage children and are the host family to an exchange student from Germany.

He is a Republican, although the mayor's post is nonpartisan. He joins Mayor Matt Rossen and former Mayor Hal Smith in the race.

"I'm very confident," he said of his chances at being the city's next mayor.