Curmudgeon's Corner

Village Buzz, January 22nd...

Posted by Al Campbell on Jan. 22, 2010

Village Buzz, Village Board, Taxes, School Board, Political, Germantown

One Down…

One of the several investigations that involve Germantown in one way or another has been concluded by the Mequon Police Department and the results have been sent on to Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens.

You may recall that I was among those interviewed since I supposedly had access to information from a “closed door” meeting of members of the Village Board.

I will be as interested as you to learn of the findings, if any, contained in that report.

School Budget Issue…

There is, apparently, an agenda item for this coming Monday evening’s School District Finance Committee meeting that has raised some eyebrows.

Ric Ericksen has included an item on that agenda that is intended to prompt discussion of his suggestion that Fund 41, the Capital Improvements fund, be eliminated.  The money freed up would be used for shoring up other areas of the budget, presumably.

This is where the money comes from for building maintenance improvements. The citizens voted against a special assessment for deferred maintenance requirements that was presented as a referendum question some time ago.

If you have feelings about this topic, your presence at the Committee meeting would be in order.

The Board would need approval to eliminate this Fund at an Annual meeting, but sparse attendance at those meetings suggest that approval might not be too difficult to come by.

I suspect that this would lead to local tax increases since there is little likelihood of state money given the deficit situation at the level of government.

Village President Candidate Forum…

Remember to mark your calendars for the upcoming forum where we will be able to pose questions to the three candidates for this position.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9^th and starts at 6:30PM in the Village Hall.