Sheboygan County Board

County Board Members	2010-2011   2010-2011   2009-2010   2009-2010

District			Supervisor Click on Supervisor name to view additional info
1	City of Sheboygan	Ward 1	Vacant
2	City of Sheboygan	Ward 2	Michael J. Vandersteen
3	City of Sheboygan	Ward 3	Mark S. Winkel
4	City of Sheboygan	Ward 4	Edward J. Procek
5	City of Sheboygan	Ward 5	Eustacio P. Medina
6	City of Sheboygan	Ward 6	James Baumgart
7	City of Sheboygan	Ward 7	Vernon Koch
8	City of Sheboygan	Ward 8	Leo A. Dunton
9	City of Sheboygan	Ward 9	Jacob Van Dixhorn
10	City of Sheboygan	Ward 10	Val Schultz
11	City of Sheboygan	Ward 11	Kris Wheeler
12	City of Sheboygan	Ward 12	James P. Glavan
13	City of Sheboygan	Ward 13	John Van Der Male
14	City of Sheboygan	Ward 14	Charles W. Conrardy
15	City of Sheboygan	Ward 15	Roger R. Otten
16	City of Sheboygan	Ward 16	John Oppeneer
17	Town of Herman Town of Mosel Town of Sheboygan	Ward 2 Wards 1 & 2	Jerald A. Holub
18	Village of Kohler Town of Sheboygan	Wards 5 & 7	Greg Weggeman
19	Town of Herman Town of Rhine Village of Elkart Lake	Ward 3 Wards 1 & 3	Keith Abler
20	Town of Herman Village of Howards Grove	Ward 1	George Marthenze
21	Town of Greenbush Town of Rhine Town of Russell Village of Glenbeulah	Wards 1, 2 & 3 Ward 2	Dale T. Cary
22	Town of Plymouth City of Plymouth	Wards 1, 2 & 3 Wards 1 & 6	Thomas V. Epping
23	City of Plymouth	Wards 2, 3, 4 & 5	Fran Damp
24	City of Plymouth	Wards 7, 8, 9 & 10	Thomas Wegner
25	Town of Sheboygan Town of Sheboygan Falls	Wards 3 & 4	Peggy Feider
26	City of Sheboygan Falls	Wards 2, 3, 4, 5 & 10	John M. Raml
27	City of Sheboygan Falls	Wards 1, 6, 7, 8 & 9	Michael S. Ogea
28	Town of Sheboygan Town of Wilson	Ward 6 Wards 1, 3 & 4	Brian C. Hoffmann
29	Town of Holland Village of Oostburg	Wards 3 & 4	Devin Le Mahieu
30	Town of Lima Town of Wilson	Ward 2	Al Bosman
31	Town of Lyndon Town of Plymouth Village of Cascade Village of Waldo	Ward 4	Adrian Van Dixhorn
32	Town of Greenbush Town of Mitchell Town of Scott	Ward 4	Richard C. Bemis
33	Town of Sherman Village of Adell Village of Random Lake		William C. Goehring
34	Town of Holland Village of Cedar Grove	Wards 1 & 2	Roger L. Te Stroete

Howards Grove School District Seeks To Borrow 3.4 Million.

 

 

Howards Grove School District seeks OK to borrow $3.4M

Officials in the Howards Grove School District will put to voters a referendum on whether the district should borrow $3.4 million to pay for building maintenance and technology upgrades.

In a special meeting last week, the School Board voted, 4-1, to send the measure to voters. That vote split the difference of two previous votes — one to borrow $3.8 million and another to borrow $3 million. Both of those votes failed, 3-2.

School Board member Richard Hemb voted against the $3.4 million measure, but for the $3.8 million motion.

About $2.4 million of the money would be go toward facility maintenance projects, including replacing the roof, doors, and windows at Howards Grove Middle School and upgrading the school's lighting, electrical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Digital control systems also would be installed at all three district school to improve energy efficiency and reduce operating costs.

About $1 million would be used to pay for technology improvements at all three schools, including installing network infrastructure, wiring, server and cable upgrades.

"These are immediate needs that have to be addressed and they can't be addressed through the regular operations of the district," district Administrator Chris Peterson said.

The district last year paid the last of its debt service on $7.9 million that was used to build Howards Grove High School in the mid-1990s, Peterson said. As a result, the district tax rate would likely stay the same if the new referendum passes.

"This means the district can address numerous basic maintenance and technology needs without an increase in taxes," Peterson said.

He said the exact impact of the referendum on the tax rate wouldn't be known for a week or so.

Should the referendum not pass, officials say they will have to consider instituting cost-saving measures such as not replacing teachers who retire, increasing class sizes, freezing wages, lowering building temperatures, cleaning classrooms three times per week instead of every day and reducing bus routes.

A Citizens Advisory Committee recommended late last year that the school board launch a capital improvement project to address maintenance and technology needs.

Peterson said a schedule for public informational meetings on the referendum would be announced in the next few days

Sheboygan Wi History.

History of Sheboygan County It is believed that in 1635 Jean Nicolet, the French explorer, was the first recorded European settler to have visited this locality as he skirted the shores of Lake Michigan heading south from Green Bay.

Native Americans following their trail from Milwaukee to Green Bay could always tell where they were when they reached the mouth of the Sheboygan River. They called this spot Schwab-we-way-kum, Native American terminology for "great noise underground." The theory is that the rushing sounds of the falls upstream prompted this description and this is a more generally accepted version of how Sheboygan got its name. When the European settlers first came, there were probably about 1000 Native Americans living in the county, composed mainly of Pottawatomies, Chippewas, Ottowas, Winnebagoes and Menominees. Their villages and camps were clustered on the bank or shore of practically every lake or stream, with the largest villages situated along the shore of Lake Michigan. After this territory began to interest the pioneers, treaties were made with the Native Americans. On September 26, 1833, in a treaty made at Chicago, the Native Americans relinquished all claim to the lands on the west shore of Lake Michigan, including what is now Sheboygan County, though many Native Americans remained here for many years. Sheboygan County has three birthdays. On December 7, 1836, an act of the territorial legislature detached the area from Brown County. This was less than a year after Wisconsin became a territory and nearly twelve years before it became a state. It was not until two years later, December 17, 1838, that the legislature passed a law organizing the county government and providing for the first election of officers, which was held March 4, 1839. December 17, 1838 should properly be considered the county's birthday. Sheboygan County's boundaries have never changed from its original organization. The first town was the Town of Sheboygan, organized March 8, 1839, with its boundaries extending to those of the county. As new towns were formed they were set off from the Town of Sheboygan. In early times Sheboygan County had a commission form of Government. The governing body was a board of three commissioners elected by the people of the county at large. In 1848 the supervisor system was made compulsory, but Sheboygan County had voluntarily accepted it some years before. So rapid was settlement that the county had all of its present number of 15 towns by 1855. By 1870 the county board consisted of supervisors chosen from each town, incorporated villages and each ward in the cities. In 1965 the county was divided into 39 supervisory districts, based on population, with one supervisor elected for a two-year term in each district. In 1982 the number of supervisory districts changed to 34. The city of Sheboygan has always been the county seat. The first permanent settlement in Sheboygan County, it is claimed, was made in the fall of 1834 when William Payne and Col. Oliver Crocker built a sawmill near the confluence of the Mullet and Sheboygan Rivers at the present site of Sheboygan Falls. A study of names of the first pioneers established them to have been of English ancestry or so-called "Yankees" from New England. First came trappers, then surveyors, followed by businessmen. They were followed in the 1840's and 50's by large migrations of Germans, Dutch, and Irish who came directly from Europe. The Settlers started clearing the land and raising crops--the work they had learned in their native land. With the increased interest in agriculture, dairying emerged as a principal industry in the county. These hardy immigrants faithfully carried on the work that the American Pioneers of New England stock had begun. The present wealth and prosperity of Sheboygan County shows how well they succeeded. Cheese-making moved from the farmhouse and dairy barn in 1858 with the first cheese factory being located on the Fond du Lac Plank Road, two miles west of Sheboygan Falls. By 1875 there were 45 factories producing over 2,000,000 pounds of cheese. At one time there were 116 factories in the county. Today the number of operating factories has dwindled and the bulk of the dairy products are produced in cooperative and corporate dairies. A great concentration of dairying continues in Sheboygan County. While the number of dairy farms is decreasing, herd sizes are becoming larger. Many factories contributed in making Sheboygan County a prosperous manufacturing center almost from the beginning. A wealth of natural water power from lakes and streams flowing generally south-easterly into Lake Michigan attracted numerous saw mills and flour mills. Many of the immigrants were artisans with skilled trades and with the abundant supply of raw materials, it was natural that early manufacturing utilized the abundant forest resources. In the 1850's implements and engines were being made in Sheboygan and a tannery prospered. Up to the Civil War Sheboygan Falls out-ranked Sheboygan as a manufacturing center. Two outstanding developments characterized the era between 1880 and 1890. One was a phenomenal growth in population, and the other was a development of large scale industry. In 1875, Sheboygan had a population of less than 7000 and this mushroomed to 16,300 by 1890. Currently, Sheboygan County has a population of over 110,000. Woodworking continued to dominate the scene, producing such products as lathes, windmills, spokes, sashes, doors and window blinds, clothes, reels, rakes, carriages, wagons and barrels. The manufacturing of enamel-ware emerged as an industry of great importance in the 1880's in the form of small kitchen cooking utensils and large kitchen and bathroom fixtures. The latter industry has become the largest employer of labor in the county with outlets throughout the world. Various immigrants had their cultural and economic effect on the community. Thrifty and industrious, they earned and saved money with which to build homes and communities of which they can justly be proud. Great music lovers, they also formed singing societies and these groups still conduct festivals and dances. Slavonic Catholics and Lithuanians arrived on the Sheboygan scene early in the twentieth century, and these ethnic groups have added to the heritage of the county.