Former Tekamah mayor mounts write-in bid
Published 2:23 pm Thursday, October 8, 2026
Former Tekamah Mayor Ron Grass is running as a write-in candidate for mayor in the Nov. 3 general election. Grass served eight years as mayor before losing the last election to Jane Walford, who did not file for re-election and has since resigned.
His opponent is Chad Zink, a former member of the Tekamah City Council. Grass appointed Zink to the council several years ago to fill a vacancy. “He filled out the term, and that was all. And frankly, I was not real impressed,” Grass said.
Zink is the grandson of Al Zink, who ran the Tekamah newspaper and served as mayor in the 1970s. “He was a pretty good mayor, but that was back in the ’70s,” Grass said.
Grass filed after learning Zink was the only candidate and after city employees asked him to get involved. He declined to name those employees. “I was told that there were a lot of people who wish they could go back and vote over, because the woman they elected was a disaster,” he said.
As for his own loss four years ago: “I really don’t know for sure. I suppose the voters just got tired of me and wanted to change, I guess.”
“My cause for running is to try to straighten out some of the mess that’s been made of Tekamah politics in the last four years,” he said. “The biggest single mess is in the police department. The mayor essentially ran off the previous police department. They were all good people.”
Jeremy Goeken became Tekamah’s police chief in September 2025 after serving nearly six years as police chief for the village of Beemer. According to Grass, the hire apparently was the mayor’s decision.
If elected, Grass would either rebuild the department or explore an alternative. “I would look at building up the police department the way it should be,” he said. “Either that or there has been some talk, and I’d be willing to look into it, of contracting with the county sheriff.”
Streets are another priority. Many in Tekamah are unpaved, and some could be improved with a couple of inches of asphalt. “I’d love to see them all paved, but that takes a lot of tax money,” he said.
Grass also plans to review every city employee hired since he left office. “I’m not saying they’re bad or anything like that. I’m just saying I don’t know them.”
Other parts of city government need little change, in his view. Water and sewer operations are “running like it should be,” and the current City Council “is in pretty good hands.” “I don’t think I’d want to change anything there,” he said.
On taxes, his position is firm: “I want to keep taxes down. I just do not see continually raising taxes just to get more money for the government to spend. That’s too much like the federal government.”
Grass counts Tekamah’s business climate as a strength and noted the city has become a bedroom community for Blair and Omaha. “People live there, probably because the cost of living is less, and work elsewhere,” he said. He supports tax increment financing on a case-by-case basis: “I guess I’m in favor if it helps businesses.”
With about 1,700 residents, Tekamah can grow without losing its character, he said. “We could certainly have some development and still keep the small town.” Much of the recent construction south of town is agricultural, which he welcomes. “Tekamah’s an agricultural community. So whatever it would take to help the farmers, as far as I’m concerned, is good.”
Attracting more residents could also ease housing costs. “I think if we get enough people going, maybe we could drop real estate prices a little bit. Some of them are getting out of hand.”
Grass has not sought endorsements and would not accept any from council members. “Council is the wrong place for that,” he said. “If a couple of the council members were to endorse me and I lost the election, what would the other mayor do? There’d be too much friction there.”
His family moved to Tekamah when he was in seventh grade, and he has lived there ever since, except for about a year and a half in the early 1960s. “I have a great deal of affection for the city of Tekamah. I want it to be as good as it can be. And it has gone downhill, and I want to get it back going again.”
Grass worked in plumbing, heating and air conditioning. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, though most of his credit hours were earned at Dana College in Blair. He has presided over 21 Masonic organizations, including one in Iowa and three at the state level, and is an honorary member of Masonic organizations in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado.
His wife, who was active in the Order of the Eastern Star, died a little more than five years ago after 47 years of marriage. She had Alzheimer’s disease during the last year and a half of her life and lived at the Masonic Home in Plattsmouth. “There’s only one thing I’ve ever been afraid of, and I lost her about five years ago,” he said. He has two daughters, one in the Denver area and one in Millard.
This will be his final campaign. “Win or lose, this is my last one. I’m not going to do it again.”
He isn’t predicting the outcome. “Let’s just say I don’t count my chickens. Everyone I have talked to seems to indicate that, yeah, I’ve got a pretty good chance. But I don’t count on it.” Nor has he heard objections at home: “I haven’t got any family that says, ‘Don’t.'”
