The Minocqua Town Board plans to fill the vacant supervisor seat held by the late Bryan Jennings on Tuesday, Nov. 15 when they meet in regular session. Jennings died September 8, two days after being struck by lightning when he went outside his house to retrieve his 4-month old puppy.
The board Tuesday, Nov. 1 went over the procedure the three supervisors, town chairman and town clerk will follow in selecting a candidate to fill the unexpired term of office. Town Chairman Mark Hartzheim initially wanted to wait until January to find a replacement, but decided to act now after fears that illness or other reasons might leave the board short of supervisors needed for a quorum. The other options were to have a special election during the spring election in April 2017 or at the annual town meeting, also in April 2017.
Supervisor Billy Fried suggested having an independent citizen committee review the candidates and make a recommendation. Part of the rationale was to remove the personal bias board members might have on candidates. But Hartzheim said state statutes call for the board to make that determination and felt the ad hoc committee decision still would have to be debated by the board. The board decided to review the letters on their own and rank the candidates before the Nov. 15 meeting. As of Nov. 1, the town office had received four letters of interest for the post. Hartzheim said he anticipates a few more will be submitted. The deadline for persons to submit a letter of interest and statement of qualifications is Friday, Nov. 4. Whoever is selected will serve out the term until April 2018. Letters of interest can be dropped off at the town clerk’s office or mailed to Town Clerk Roben Haggart, 415 Menominee St., Suite A, Minocqua, WI 54548.
In other actions, the board gave a first reading of a proposed ordinance change that would prohibit “cruising” by ATVers on roads marked open to ATVing, but only to access ATV trail systems. The prohibition was in the winter access routes ordinance, but due to an oversight, not for summer access routes. Some homeowners in the Bo-di-Lac area are upset about excessive road use by a few ATVers. The “no cruising” rule on local ATV access roads would apply now to both summer and winter routes. “It gets rid of joy riding,” said the town chairman. After a second reading, the measure becomes enforceable by law enforcement. Anyone seeing possible infractions of town road rules by ATVers should notify police immediately so they can quickly respond, Hartzheim said. The board also gave a first reading of an ordinance to erect a stop sign at the intersection of West Lake and South Blumenstein Road, and remove the existing stop sign on South Blumenstein Road.
The town chairman noted that the annual budget meeting will be Thursday, Nov. 17, 6pm in the boardroom of the Community Center.
