The Minocqua Town Board and town clerk Tuesday picked Minocqua businessman Bill Stengl to fill the supervisor post left vacant when Bryan Jennings died Sept. 8 from injuries suffered when he was struck by lightning.
All five unsigned ballots by the board and clerk listed Stengl as their choice, although one ballot also included two other names from the list of six candidates who submitted letters of interest. He will take his oath of office Thursday and serve until the 2018 election. Stengl, a two-year member of the Minocqua Planning Commission, is the vice president/general manger of Stengl Marine, a 30-year-old family owned boat dealership in Minocqua.
He tells what drew him to this position:
“First and foremost this town has been very good to me and to my family and I feel that we are very blessed to live here,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just want to give back a little bit. I want to serve the town. “I want to help make sure the town (supervisors) are good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars. That’s probably my only agenda -- just to make sure tax dollars are spent wisely. That we are getting good value for the tax dollars that are paid.”
Town Chairman Mark Hartzheim said the town had received “an excellent pool” of candidates. Supervisor Sue Heil said she talked to each and came away with the belief that no one had a personal agenda in applying for the post. The other five candidates were Cindy Kyska, Phil Albert, Brian Fricke, Bonnie Jennings (widow of Bryan Jennings) and Jeffrey Vollmer.
In a special town board meeting earlier that evening, the board revoked the liquor license held by UNC’s Nixon House, LLC, doing business as Captain Jack’s Back Bay Supper Club, Dennis Schulze, agent. Near the end of the revocation hearing, Schulze indicated he was not contesting the license revocation, but wanted to explain his position to the board. He had lost his lease to the Back Bay property.
