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ABOUT ME

Kent Roe - District 4 House

Kent Voringfossen - Norway
Kent and wife Melissa

A LITTLE ABOUT ME -

I was born and raised in rural Hazel, and grew up on a dairy farm where I learned the value of hard work. I am the oldest of 5 siblings. I graduated from Hamlin High School in 1984, and attended SDSU earning a Bachelor's Degree in Animal Sciences in 1988. My wife, Melissa, and I married in 2005. We were living in Wisconsin at the time, and moved back home to South Dakota in 2007.

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I have two adult children from my first marriage. My daughter lives in Baldwin, WI. She attended UW-Eau Claire, graduating a semester early with a Bachelor's Degree in Business. She is married, and together with her husband they have 5 children aged 7 months - 18 years. She is the office manager for an accounting firm. My son lives in Rapid City with his wife. He is a graduate of SD School of Mines & Technology with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He works for the state military as a project manager. I am proud to say my children have inherited an excellent work ethic, and I am so proud of their accomplishments!

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I currently serve on my local Sioux Rural Water System board of directors, and I am director for Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System. I am on the board for the Professional Appraisers Association of South Dakota (PAASD). Melissa and I are active members at New Hope Lutheran Church in rural Hayti, and I serve on the church council and cemetery board. 

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In my spare time, you are likely to find me reading. I enjoy reading news, history, and the classics. Once I stopped driving across the country, I started to enjoy traveling by plane. Melissa and I have been to Norway to visit distant relatives twice, and we have been to Mexico, Hawaii, Jamaica, Finland, and Russia, among several US states.  

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MY EXPERIENCE -

My parents raised me with a strong work ethic and strong faith. After graduating from college in 1988, my first wife and I moved to the acreage I had purchased while in college. We farmed and milked near Hazel until moving to the Colman area, where we had a dairy farm.

 

In 1994, I started my first trucking business, and found a home in the trucking industry until 2021. I built 3 trucking businesses hauling a variety of products. While living in Minneapolis and Wisconsin I worked for a small, family-owned trucking company and ran coast-to-coast for several years until deciding it was important to be home nightly to be more available for my children and started working for a  trucking company hauling hazardous materials throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

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While I worked as an owner/operator for these companies, I also had an employee in South Dakota who managed the feed hauling side of my business for several years. In 2007, we had the opportunity to move home to South Dakota and purchase a trucking fleet from a local feed mill. While this came with new challenges, we pulled through and made it a very successful business, branching into other areas of the trucking industry along the way. I am capable of managing multiple endeavors at the same time. 

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Due to federal D.O.T. rule changes, we decided to sell our trucking company and equipment. My wife has been a residential appraiser for 10 years, and we have many friends in the industry. I began training in earnest in March 2021 to become a Certified General Appraiser concentrating on farmland appraisal. In October 2022, we changed our company name to "Forseti Appraisals, Inc." Here we go again!

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My time with the rural water board provided several opportunities to travel to Washington, DC to meet with national leaders both at the state level and the federal level. Over time, a small nucleus of forward-thinking individuals involved in state water systems coalesced around a big idea. In May 2023, this group was incorporated  as Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System, Inc. I was a signer on the original documents and serve as the Treasurer on the Executive Committee. Maintaining our water source for the future is very important to me, and I have  met with our state and federal leadership to build relationships toward this goal.  

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What does all this tell you about me? I give 110% every time, and I am capable of starting something new and succeeding. I have been a son, father, husband, and now grandfather. I have been the boss, and I have been the employee. I have failed, and I have succeeded. Having lived outside of South Dakota and traveling the United States from shore to shore, I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of people from all walks of life. 

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...And I can be your District 4 House Representative. Please vote Roe for District 4 in November. Thank you!

Affiliations

I am affiliated or involved with the following organizations:

In The News

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