7/19/11 – The Beaver Dam Common Council last night unanimously approved an ordinance establishing new voting wards in the city. Redistricting is required to be done in conjunction with the ten-year census. As part of the process, the Dodge County Board chose to eliminate four of its 36 supervisory districts. Because one of the county board districts being eliminated is in the city of Beaver Dam, the 14 aldermanic wards inside the city have to be redrawn. Most city wards will see very little alteration but some alderpersons were going see as much as 75% of their wards completely change. The city’s Director of Administration John Somers says he worked with the county to lessen that impact and now no ward in the city should see more than a 30% shift in its constituency. The biggest changes will be in the two county board supervisory districts that used to each have two city wards but now will have three wards. Those wards are Four, Five, Eight, Ten, 12 and 14.
