(Fall River) Fall River filled its 3 open village board seats with two incumbents and one newcomer. Incumbent Jeff Slotten garnered the most votes with 125 followed closely by the newcomer John Ninmann with 118 votes. The other incumbent, Judy Robbins, finished third with 110. Mandy MacFarlane came in 4th with 56 votes.
And we should learn this morning who earned seats on the school board in Fall River. Incumbent Leroy Dieckhoff was the leading vote getter with 178 and will return. However, there was a tie for the other seat as David Brozak and Steve Bader tied with 150 votes apiece. Coming in 4th was Diane Weiner with 124 votes.
Court of Appeals
Wisconsin will get two new appeals court judges as the result of yesterday’s local elections, including one that represents most of our area. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard easily won a seat on the Fourth District Appellate Court which serves 24 counties in southern and central Wisconsin. Blanchard will replace the retiring Charles Dykman, who had served on the appellate court when it was first formed in the late 1970’s.
Columbus
One major change in last night’s Columbus vote. The current President of the City Council – Ed Parpart Jr. – was defeated by first time candidate Paula Schumann.
The other two district council member incumbents Tyler Walker and Jenny Perkins ran unopposed. According to Columbia County tallies Schumann defeated Parpart 81 to 43 for the 3rd District seat. Schumann moved to Columbus in May of 2008 and started her active run for the Council January 1st.
Town of Elba
Voters in the town of Elba said no to adopting Dodge County’s zoning ordinance for the town. The advisory referendum came in response to changes in the Farmland Preservation Program and rising land use conflicts. 70 residents voted against advising the town to change to the county’s zoning ordinance while 40 voted in favor. It’s expected the town will now consider updating their own zoning ordinance.
Voter Turnout
Just 16-percent of registered voters in Dodge County came out to cast a ballot in yesterday’s election. County Clerk Karen Gibson says of the more than 47,000 registered voters in the county just 7,700 voted. She says the turnout shows the importance of every single vote. Gibson says the one plus to the low turnout was a relatively problem free day for her staff.
Walker Speaks in Beaver Dam
4/7/10 – One of the Republican candidates for Governor, Scott Walker, spoke to about 50-people at the Veterans Center in Beaver Dam last night. The Milwaukee County Executive touched on issues ranging from health care reform to creating jobs during the one-hour session. Walker took questions for a majority of his allotted time, including one about the hot button issue of health care saying he’s read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and can’t find anything that allows the federal government to force citizens to buy health insurance. Walker also spoke about finding new sources of clean energy but not at the cost of raising customer’s utility rates. He say’s he’s all for going green but that, “I want the green to save me green or make me green not take green from my pocket.” The former state assemblyman also told a corrections officer that he has no plans to privatize the states prison system. This afternoon it’s Democratic candidate Tom Barrett’s turn to speak at the Veterans Center. Doors open to the public at 2:30 with Barrett scheduled to start speaking at 3pm.
Columbus Hires Engineering Firm
4/7/10 – A “long-term” engineering contract was approved by the Columbus Council last night. The council agreed to a seven year agreement with Ruekert Mielke for engineering services. The council also approved the first two projects to be assigned to the engineering firm. The first being the repair of Farnham Street from Park Street to Waterloo and the second will be design inspection of the new Highland Commons. The contract allows engineering firms currently involved in capital projects to complete the work they were hired to do. However, they’ll be working closely with a new “City Engineer” – the Ruekert Mielke firm
