{"id":44,"date":"2007-01-26T18:40:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-27T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/linux\/wordpress\/?p=44"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:41:53","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:41:53","slug":"karpisek-brings-hometown-perspective-to-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=44","title":{"rendered":"Karpisek brings hometown perspective to Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Karpisek enjoys camping and fishing with the family in his spare time.<\/em><\/p>\n

After graduating from the University of Nebraska\u2013Lincoln, Sen. Russ Karpisek knew where he wanted to go from there.<\/p>\n

He returned to his hometown of Wilber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always did plan on going back,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve just always been a Wilber kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he first started college, Karpisek had plans of becoming a veterinarian, but after a few classes he realized it wasn\u2019t for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cChem 109 settled that one right away,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n

He switched to business and said a degree in business administration came in handy when he took over the local meat market his grandmother owned.<\/p>\n

Karpisek married a hometown girl. His wife, Jill, was three years behind him in school and the two weren\u2019t even friends. He said while he was home over the weekends during college all that changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided we didn\u2019t mind each other so much,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n

The Karpiseks have two children, Tyler and Stephanie, and still enjoy life in Wilber.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just pretty tight knit,\u201d Karpisek said of the community. \u201cWe\u2019re like one big family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilber\u2019s Czech Days are always a big event. The town of about 1,800 swells to 50,000 with festivities drawing crowds from across the nation. Karpisek plays trumpet in the Wilber-Clatonia Alumni band.<\/p>\n

For 12 years, Karpisek served as mayor of Wilber, which taught him a lot about compromise and communicating with people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world would be a lot easier to live in if everyone looked through someone else\u2019s eyes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the Legislature, Karpisek said he\u2019d like to help his colleagues see life through the eyes of small business owners throughout the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw first hand how hard it was for a small business to expand,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re always chasing the big companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the meat market has its challenges, Karpisek said he enjoys it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to be around people all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During time off, Karpisek said he and his family enjoy camping in their fifth wheel trailer.<\/p>\n

Camping trips usually involve a little fishing, visiting with friends and a lot of relaxing. After a long day at the Legislature, Karpisek said he sometimes plays video games with his son to wind down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to just kind of let your brain stop working overtime for a while,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After graduating from the University of Nebraska\u2013Lincoln, Sen. Russ Karpisek knew where he wanted to go from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21426,"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":[226],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-karpisek-enjoys"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetKarpisek_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","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=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21732,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/21732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}