The Village is TAKING Our Land!!! Yikes! Run for the hills!

Sorry for the delay in postings. I have so much to write about, but so little time….I’m going to try and make this a Sunday habit, so stay tuned. Here’s my latest installment regarding my opinion that the Town of Vernon Town Board has lost its mind:

So the Village is TAKING our property? What? Is this true? Our Town Board seems to think so; I’ve heard them say this, or imply this, more than once.

The fact is that the Village CANNOT initiate the taking, or annexation, of Town property. A property owner or MAJORITY of property owners in a continuous geographic area must initiate an annexation petition. In fact, it is ILLEGAL for any village or city to initiate an annexation or to provide incentives or contractual benefits to a property owner in exchange for requesting annexation of their property!

(Do you want to know more? Go to: http://www.doa.state.wi.us/section.asp?linkid=132&locid=9)

Even though this is true, our Town Board continues to spread the myth that somehow the Village is “taking” our land. Why do they spread this myth? Why do they keep making us believe the Village is the “bad guy”? Honestly, I don’t know. I can only speculate as to their motivations.

Here’s what I know to be true: the Town has made it attractive for property owners to take their land into the Village! What Mike? That’s blasphemous! OUR Town Board is causing these annexations!?! How can you say that!?! Well, it’s true….

Think about this, would property owners such as Deluca and Ball have ever annexed their properties to the Village if the Town had been more progressive in their support of the business that resides on these properties? If the Town had policies in place that encouraged and worked with businesses to expand and be successful, then they would have no motivation to move the property into the Village. So, in the case of the Deluca property we did not allow them to expand; the Village did. So, we have the IMPACTS (more trucks, more traffic, etc.) anyway, but the Town has lost the tax base. WE AS A TOWN AND OUR LEADERS CAUSED THIS!!! Not the Village. The Village just decided to be flexible and work with this business.

Most of the Town Board members involved in negotiating with Mr. Deluca did not have the forsight to see this. What a shame. Yet it’s the Village’s fault!

So, where does this leave us today? Our Town continues to more toward more and more isolation from the Village of Big Bend. We are no longer working together to solve problems as a community even though most reasonable people know and understand that we ARE a community. The Town knows best…we’re going it alone. We’re going to spend a TON of money in the next few months to realize that we can NEVER operate our Town without consideration of our neighbors. We’re going to lose the opportunity to work with the Village of Big Bend to create high quality, thoughtful development on the interstate interchange. We’re going to lose our opportunity to have ANY input or benefit from this development. Over what, a few line items in the budget and some poor decisions by some members of the Fire Board and Fire Department? Where I come from you work to solve problems, not create more by pretending we can do it better on our own. We all know that sharing costs will end up costing us all less in the long run.

(On a side note: keep in mind that this is the same group that has not yet figured out how to tear down the condemned barn near the Town Hall! And that's been over a year! Anyway, I digress....sorry.)

The Town Board has forgotten that the Village has the control no matter what. That’s the way the law of the State of Wisconsin is written. If we don’t find ways to work together, then isolated we will become and more of our tax base will leave the Town and we will lose more of our ability to negotiate with the Village on issues that will benefit the Town.

So remember, when it comes to annexation, it is the Town’s policies and business environment that cause annexation, not the Village. Come on Vernon! Wake up! Oh wait; this is AFTER the wake-up....wow I should have stayed asleep.

Town Bears the Cost? Huh?

Village of Big Bend development of the I-94/Hwy 164 interchange has been cited by the Town of Vernon Board of Supervisors as a reason to dissolve the joint fire department. This was stated in the letter to residents dated 12/18/09.


I did a rough guesstimate for the potential increase in assessed value on this interchange based on what I know might occur when sewer is available. Conservatively this increase in commercial assessed value is $30 million. Potentially more, but let’s be conservative.

Based on the 2009 budget [considering tax derived monies], the Town contributed about $365,000 and the Village about $71,000 to the fire department operating fund. If everything else remained the same (i.e. residential value, population, etc.) as the interchange develops, this proportion would change to about $358,000 and $77,861 respectively. Hey we’re moving in the right direction.

I admit, it’s not a lot, but citing this as a reason to dissolve the joint fire department is absurd. The reality is the biggest cost for development on this interchange is not going to be fire and rescue services, it will be police services which are a Village issue. Keep in mind also that fire and rescue services are charged to the user; they don't necessarily impact the budget.  Based on the equipment on hand and the proposed development plans I've seen, the fire department does not need to expand.  What costs?

BBVFD Breakup - Some More Background

The link included with this post is to the Mukwonago Chief article about the breakup of the Big Bend-Vernon Fire Department.  It's a relatively good article.  The only inaccuracy is in the characterization of the intermunicipal agreement. 

The agreement states that if both communities cannot adopt an identical budget by December 15th each year, then the department will dissolve by December 31 the next year.  Nothing to do with state law.

The Town of Vernon Board of Supervisors have used this provision in the agreement as an excuse to dissolve the department over what I feel is the appropriate budgeting of legal fees that THE BOARD AGREED WAS A GOOD IDEA!  Including CHAIRMAN MICHALEK!!!  I'm convinced it's a control issue, nothing more.  A control issue that's going to cost us a lot of money.

Anyway, I'll stop yelling now.  Why the overwhelming need to control?  I've been told by the Board directly and seen in their actions that they must directly control all actions taken, spending, etc. in the Town.  Their attitude is that they were elected, so they MUST make these decisions.  I STRONGLY DISAGREE!  Having some appointed members of committees, commissions and other governing bodies helps add a measure of insight that the politicians may not feel compelled to add due to politics.  Too much control in the hands of a small group is not a good thing. 

My suggestion is to ask one of the former plan commission members how they feel about NONE of the electorate being involved in the decision making process.  Mr. Craig?  Mr. Batholomew?  Mr. Bauer?

Bottom line is this, as a citizen you need to demand that the board provide the answers to these questions about our "new" fire department:  How much will it cost to establish?  How much will it cost to run on a yearly basis?  What level of service will we have?  How about having paramedic service? 

If it costs the same with a lower level of service (which I'm sure it will), then why are we doing this?