{"id":15869,"date":"2015-01-16T11:52:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=15869"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:05:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:05:47","slug":"kolterman-seeks-to-build-on-public-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=15869","title":{"rendered":"Kolterman seeks to build on public service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Mark Kolterman guides grandsons Elliott (left) and Graham in the art of marshmallow roasting.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seward Sen. Mark Kolterman\u2019s face lights up as he describes the tree house he is currently building for his four grandchildren to enjoy. Although he has spent almost his entire career in the insurance business, Kolterman holds a degree in building construction and calls woodworking a passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tree house is going to be big,\u201d he laughed. \u201cBigger than I originally intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolterman said that after raising daughters Jessica and Jennifer, he enjoys having grandsons to spoil\u2014even if they use the tree house only a few times a year.<\/p>\n

His wife Suzanne enjoys his handyman skills as well, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe likes that I\u2019m able to tackle the \u2018honey do\u2019 list,\u201d he said, adding that he has been married to his \u201chigh school sweetheart\u201d for 43 years. Both grew up in Seward and their ties to the community run deep.<\/p>\n

Kolterman was a volunteer firefighter for 14 years and has been involved in various forms of community service since high school. He said it runs in the family, noting that his twin brother Clark started the town\u2019s famous Fourth of July celebration back in 1969.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been chairman of the celebration ever since,\u201d he said. \u201cOur whole family grew up in public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolterman currently operates an insurance agency with his wife, which he says works well because they have an agreement. \u201cI\u2019m the boss at the office; she\u2019s the boss at home,\u201d he joked. \u201cBut everybody knows that she\u2019s really the boss, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple enjoys traveling both within Nebraska and beyond, he said, adding that it\u2019s important for people to make time to see different parts of the country.<\/p>\n

An annual winter trip has been a highlight for the last 12 years, he said, although the demands of being a state senator might interfere this year.<\/p>\n

Kolterman said it will be difficult to balance an outside career and serving his district at the Capitol, but he is up for the challenge. Kolterman said he is not ready to retire and sees the Legislature as a chance to expand his public service while still maintaining his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that people know that I\u2019m here to serve them and I\u2019m ready to get started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seward Sen. Mark Kolterman\u2019s face lights up as he describes the tree house he is currently building for his four grandchildren to enjoy. Although he has spent almost his entire career in the insurance business, Kolterman holds a degree in building construction and calls woodworking a passion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[167,18],"tags":[143],"class_list":["post-15869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-mark-kolterman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetKolterman_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15869"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21680,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15869\/revisions\/21680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}