Wheatland residents will be able to vote in a contested election for town chairman in th April 6 election.
Appearing on the ballot will be incumbent William Glembocki and challenger Diane Grenus.
Both candidates were sent identical questionnaires. Below are their answers as they sent them in:
William Glembocki — Age: 59. Education: Salem Central High School, Gateway Tech EMT and various Fire and Rescue courses. Occupation: Town Chairman of Wheatland, Self Employed Glembocki Concrete, Manager at Brat Stop, Retired from Chrysler Motors. Previous elected/appointed
Public office: Town Chairman of Wheatland.
Diane Grenus — Age: 67. Education: BA Business and Communication. Occupation: Retired from Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Previous elected/appointed public office: None
1.) Why are you the best choice for Wheatland town chairman?
Glembocki — I have 12 years’ experience working as Chairman for the Town of Wheatland. I love the Town of Wheatland and the people who live here! I want to continue to work for the betterment of our town but am not interested in pushing more government on them. I like to use common sense when issues come up. I listen to all sides and must sometimes make decisions that not everyone agrees with. Sometimes I must accept decisions that I do not agree with! But that is part of the job that I was elected to do. I always have the best interests of the town in mind with each decision made.
Grenus — It is time for fresh ideas and new leadership. I feel I am the best choice because I am passionate about moving Wheatland forward by utilizing technology to put information into the homes of the people in our community. Most families today have both parents working and children in schools and activities which does not allow much time to attend town meetings. The opposite of this scenario is the senior citizens who cannot attend for various reasons. Currently the meetings are attended by anywhere from the same ten to 30 people depending on what is on the agenda. I would like to reach a much larger audience and hear what their needs are and how as a town board we can help them. Information is empowering and between live streaming our meetings and filling our town website with information that reflects what is happening in our community with tabs to link to local resources: parks, news, maps, events, meeting video, agenda and minutes; business: licenses, permits, planning & zoning, bid notices & RFPs; local and county business information links; it should be a repository of “go to” information our busy residents.
2.) What do you see as the chief issues facing Wheatland and how do you feel they should be addressed?
Glembocki — Although the voters of Wheatland voted against a new building for the fire department, the Board should continue working with the fire department for their future needs. Making sure we get the most
for our tax dollars is important. Maintaining a good relationship with our rescue service and maintaining/repairing roads are some important issues as well. Working with different opinions and trying to reach a happy medium is always an issue, but I will keep doing my best to represent what I feel is the best for all citizens of the Town of Wheatland.
Grenus — One pending issue that did not get resolved is building a new fire station. We need to take a step back because it was really a very intense project and I feel the time is not yet right to revisit. The project was rolling out shortly after the Wheatland Grade School $9 million dollar referendum which I think hurt the project a little. Unfortunately, now we are facing a $39 million school referendum for Westosha Central High School. Our community felt the fire station tax impact was going to strain budgets and now the latest referendum will certain be very impactful. At some point when the time is right we need to start fresh with specific parameters, budgets, plans and certainly community-wide input. I feel with live streaming the town meetings and keeping current information on the town website, the community will be kept up to date on the progress of current projects and everyone will hear the same messages at the same time. The second issue I feel needs to be addressed immediately is putting one of the rescue squads and supplies that was gifted to the Town of Wheatland into service for relatively low cost. This squad would be used to supplement the agreement we have with Twin Lakes Rescue Service in the event we have multiple calls in a short period of time or major medical emergency and it is a great asset for the Town to provide to the community. Another issue that needs to be resolved is the flooding in Slades Corners. That issue has been brought to the attention of the DOT, their engineers, Senator Nass, Representative August and various other people. We must find a solution to resolve this problem. Along the water issue is the Oakwood Shores community. I was approached by a resident concerned about sump pumps pumping water across yards. My husband and I drove through that subdivision today and saw all the sump pumps working hard just the same as in Slades Corners. I certainly understand their frustration. I know the river and low land is their greatest conflict there. All this combined creates one major problem and that is the need to create and preserve revenue for the town. How to budget and carefully manage the taxpayer’s money is priority. As Chairman, I look forward to tackling these critical issues with the all the elected officials and the community.
