Father of 9 blends small-town mayor role with heart for serving others

By Steve Young, for Pigeon605

It wouldn’t be right to call Danny Fergen the “accidental” mayor of Lennox.

True, he wasn’t elected by the people. He has no background in politics and has lived in Lennox for only three years. For the most part, his ascension to mayordom in this Lincoln County community of 2,500 people happened simply because he raised his hand.

That’s a story all by itself. The guy is 42 years old and married with nine children  ̶  five of whom are adopted  ̶  with a 10th child due to be born in December.

He commutes 20 miles each way daily to earn a paycheck by helping with office operations and sales at Mid States Audio & Video in Sioux Falls.

And when the workday is done, it’s home to the busyness of a family life in which four of the adopted children  ̶  all of them 16 or 17 years old  ̶  are fully engulfed in the complexities of teen life.

Yet there he was, this political neophyte, raising his hand this past May after no one else had gathered signatures to put their names on the ballot to become mayor, and declaring his desire to wade into the governmental minutiae of the town he calls home.

If that seems an atypical approach to public office, perhaps it is. But accidental? Not by Danny Fergen’s way of thinking. And just a few short months into it, he’s actually doing a pretty good job, Lennox City Administrator Nate Vander Plaats said.

“You know, so many times, we see that people are hesitant to run or be involved in city government because, the way they put it is, ‘Oh, I don’t know enough about it,’” Vander Plaats said. “But that’s not really the issue. What our community needs is people who are passionate about serving, passionate about helping their community. And Danny, he’s very passionate about Lennox.”

It’s doable for Fergen because being mayor is just a part-time gig. He earns $150 a meeting, or roughly $300 a month. In Lennox’s aldermanic form of government  ̶  two elected aldermen from each of three wards, with an at-large mayor  ̶  his role entails presiding at council meetings, voting in case of a tie and signing or vetoing any ordinance passed by the council. While that veto pen hints at mayoral power, “I’ve not seen it done here,” Vander Plaats said. “I’m sure it’s happened, but I can’t tell you when.”

Beyond the bimonthly meetings, Fergen helps set the overall direction for city government in consultation with the council. Ask him what skill set he brings to that responsibility and he’ll tell you that he used to read the minutes of council meetings, that he didn’t hesitate to answer surveys about city needs and that he would participate in online community question-and-answer forums that Vander Plaats would moderate.

You know, Fergen joked to his wife, Kansas  ̶  after Lennox’s former mayor decided not to seek re-election last spring and after no one else pursued signatures to get on the ballot  ̶  maybe that was enough to qualify him to be mayor. She shared the joke with friends at supper one night and, laughing or not, they suggested that he should give it a go. It didn’t take long and others were encouraging him as well.

And why not, Danny Fergen thought? While it was true his family had lived in Lennox for only three years, they certainly loved their community. In fact, they had a bit of local celebrity status going for them after the HGTV series “Down Home Fab” selected their century-old house for a made-for-TV renovation project that resulted in them getting a remodeled kitchen, living room and dining room.

As part of being selected for that moment of televised fame, the Fergens had to agree to pay the construction costs, which they did. “But it was fun,” he said. “The cost to us was worth it. We were very happy with the outcome.”

Beyond the television notoriety, there are other storylines to Fergen’s life that helped pave his path to the mayor’s office. He is a man of great faith and passion, both of which are on display in the decision he and Kansas made to adopt children. In his younger days, Fergen had done of a number of mission trips to Honduras and Zambia, working primarily in orphanages. “And what I discovered was I had a heart for kids who needed a place to feel safe and loved,” he said.

While he had always thought that adoption was just an alternative for those would couldn’t have their own biological children, he knew Kansas wanted to have a big family and that she liked the idea of adoption. It didn’t take long for him to come around to that way of thinking too.

It turns out that three of the children they brought into their home were older and had been adopted previously into other families. When those situations didn’t work out, the Fergens opened their arms to them. The decisions to do so were not without challenges. But in each case, it has worked, Fergen insists, especially since the children came into a home where there were others who had been adopted as well.

“It’s good for them to see they’re not the only one,” he said of being adopted. “They’ll say, ‘You’ll just hold on to me until it doesn’t work out and then move me somewhere else.’ But from the start of it, we just say, ‘This is a place you’re going to call home no matter what.’ ”

Having a heart, a passion, for children means having to learn how to work through the trauma of the rejection they had experienced, Fergen said. It means learning that kids adapt differently and that conversations can vary greatly depending on what each one is thinking and feeling, and how they process what they hear.

“So counseling has been huge, too, for them, and for us to learn,” he said. “And with the older ones, they’re teenagers, too, and that’s a whole other situation. It’s a tough day and age to be raising teenagers, especially with the technologies and influences out there, and plus when you have a teenager that has gone through traumatic experiences. It hasn’t been easy, but God has been able to equip us with what we needed in how we parent them.”

Fergen would tell you that God has done more than just stoked his passion for adoption. As he looks back on his journey through his adult work life  ̶  in customer service at the Ramkota Hotel in Sioux Falls; as manager of operations for Hope Haven International at the state penitentiary, overseeing inmates refurbishing wheelchairs to be donated to those in impoverished countries; and as the head of audio, video and technology at Central Church in Sioux Falls for eight years  ̶  he believes his faith and work ethic have helped forge his leadership abilities as well.

“They all helped me move forward into leadership roles. I really believe that,” Fergen said of his many job opportunities. “Today, I would describe myself as trying to be a humble leader. I don’t think I have all the right answers, but I’ve learned that I can ask some good questions, and I can help process and think through things well. I’m level-headed. I’m very calm and even-keeled and just a rational thinker.”

All that comes in handy in a social media world where politicians and public servants often are skewered over the most minor of complaints. Lennox is part of that world. In his short time on the job, Fergen said he already has heard about water and sewer bills being too high, and surcharges and fees going up to pay for new or updated infrastructure. He has heard concerns about trees being torn down in boulevards to widen streets. The citizenry has even tracked him down at church.

“I haven’t gotten too much of that,” he said of the public complaints. “If I do, I’ll respond to emails in mostly a generic response of ‘I appreciate you keeping in touch.’ I just need to listen. I don’t necessarily have to agree with them or disagree with them. I just think they want to know that I hear and that I’m listening.”

Vander Plaats said he has heard no complaints about the new mayor. “I’m more likely to cause the kerfuffle,” he said, laughing.

That said, Fergen comes into his role at a time when Lennox is looking at significant investment to improve water and sewer infrastructure, streets and drainage. Raising those surcharges and fees to do that “has been a sore subject,” Fergen agrees.

But much of that needed improvement has been delayed for too long, he said. There are still gravel roads in town that need to be paved. There are areas that have no curb and gutter, and thus the right drainage. Some sewer lines are over a century old and need to be replaced.

“We are finding with redoing some of our streets that some of the infrastructure of our roads, water and sewer are not done to the standard that we require today,” he said. “So we want to do it right rather than ignore it and have it cost our taxpayers more money later.

“Honestly, we’re not doing it for my age group but for the next generation that ends up moving to and living in Lennox. Hopefully, they will be appreciative of that and the investment we put in.”

The council and aldermen have been a good buffer for him in all this, he insists. They’re really the faces of Lennox and have been for a long time, so people probably know them better and have perhaps a better personal relationship with them, Fergen said.

He’s trying to build those relationships, too, talking to folks at sporting or school events that often involve his children. But working in Sioux Falls means he misses the ribbon-cuttings and the other weekday events that a mayor might attend if he didn’t have other responsibilities. It can’t be helped, Fergen said.

What that might mean for his political future in Lennox, if anything, remains to be seen. His appointment as mayor is for one year. Next spring, if he so chooses, he will have to run again to fill out the second year of the former mayor’s two-year term. After that, the job is back on a two-year election cycle.

Looking down the road, he thinks that he would run again, depending, of course, on whether the mayoral commitment impacts his work schedule, or his children’s activities, or his family life with that new baby coming in December.

“If it makes sense within our schedule and my family is supportive of it, I think I would put my name in for the election,” Fergen said. “So far, the way it’s going, I do see myself running again.”