JS Online: Vernon town chairman won't seek re-election

My reaction to this article is the following:
1. I appreciate Fred’s service and his best effort to do what he feels is right for the town. I don’t harbor any ill feelings toward Fred and consider him a friend, but it IS time for a change. I have very vocally disagreed with the direction the town is heading.

2. I hope that he realizes that his approach was wrong and that the people don’t support this move. I could be wrong, but he has been under fire and this must factor in the decision making process.

3. It’s too bad the one of the architects of this mess won’t be around in the next budget cycle to show the residents how this WILL cause an increase in taxes. I hope not, but fear it’s inevitable.

Lots of people have asked me to run for office in this cycle to help the town get back to normalcy. I’d love to continue to serve the community in a more visible role and I’m contemplating doing so, but I’m concerned about the need for even more money to fix this mess. We’ve spent well in excess of my initial estimate of $150,000. As I’ve stated before we’ve spent lots of cash and capital to get to where we are today.

On the issue of more money to solve this problem, I’ve looked at the town and fire department budgets for next year and have two major concerns:

1. The fire department budget overstates estimated revenues by about $35,000.

2. The town budget, in order to not raise taxes even this year, taps into reserve funds. There won’t be this opportunity next year; the current town board has us tapped dry. Our reserve funds should not be diminished further.

Then again, when I think about these things, I wonder who WILL work to fix these things? I fear the next town board will not be popular when reality sets in and the money has to come from somewhere to correct these past sins.

On another matter, reading the comments after this article, one set of comments struck me as a little troubling not only because of the mis-information repeated, but because of the tone. The comments by “snakecharmer” on 12/9, have the acidic tone that has become all too common in anonymous online postings. I have to admit, some of that tone does reach this blog too and it happens on both sides of the issues. Of course, in the comments I’m called out specifically, that’s OK, I have thick skin, but I do have a couple comments on the specific issues:

1. “Hey there fellow bloggers, Craig, Barikmo, Bird and Riley are town heroes. No other town in the history of Wisconsin ever got a cool half million dollars from a neighboring village for free and unconditionally.” FREE!?! Are you kidding me? This is OUR money! Think about this: It was estimated that the joint department had a value (equity) of about $2.4million. Roughly 85% of that should belong to US in the town, or about $2million of it. In the dissolution of the department we received about $1million in equipment and about $500,000 in cash from Big Bend. So we LOST $500,000 in equity! ($2m - $1m - $0.5m = $0.5m) We got screwed in this deal; it’s certainly NOT free money. To make this even worse, Big Bend lost equity too. This split has been a lose-lose.

2. “If Doble runs he has got a lot to explain --- how the consecutive numbered checks were written for the $13K soap scam…” I have to admit, I don’t know much about the details of this issue: Did I vote with the rest of the fire board to approve these payments? When was this? Did anyone on the fire board know about this issue at the time? I’m going to do a little research on this and make it the subject of a later blog post. If I was duped, then I’ll address it. I’m certainly not perfect and do make mistakes. But, what really bothers me about this comment is the accountability directed at those that were deceived and NOT those that perpetrated the deception. I have to ask who knew about this in the fire department? Why was the fire board deceived, if that is the case? The last I checked, the only member of the command staff that is no longer with the department is Phil Buchholtz. I would suspect that Phil did not act alone on any purchase. Phil was a consensus builder, the rest of the command staff was well involved in all aspects of the fire department operations, were they involved in this? Maybe “snakecharmer” should explain why Doble has a lot of explaining to do, when there are still people on the fire board today that were in place when this “soap issue” occurred. Do they have a lot to explain too? I suggest that if “snakecharmer” wants to take a cheap shot at Doble, then he/she should take the same shot at all of those that should bear some responsibility, but I suspect that would not serve this person’s purpose, therefore it will never happen.

3. “….even the old and confused darling of Big Bend and Vernon's Mr. NoooooO, Rodell Singert.” Really!?! Is this necessary? How does this add to the improvement of our town? Add to the dialogue? I have to say, sometimes Singert goes off on a tangent and speaks longer that he should on an issue, AND he and I don’t always agree, but this is unnecessary. Like Fred, Rodell is doing what he thinks is best for the town at all times. I appreciate his service too.

This post has gotten a lot longer that I intended, but I always feel it is necessary to keep the dialogue alive. Here is one final suggestion for everyone:

Stop making anonymous posts and keep your dialogue productive and insightful; this applies to this blog too! Put your name to your comments. Add to the debate and add your ideas. God knows we need all the help we can get to get our community through this. Ninety percent of the comments I see are back and forth tit-for-tat dribble attacking people and personalities on both sides, this is unnecessary and unproductive. Do we really need to attack those that we disagree with? Anyway, comment on this:

How would you move the community forward?