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New chief sought

Edgar will bump up police chief base salary to $53,000

The Edgar Village Board on Monday voted to advertise for a new police chief, one that will have the village administrator as his or her supervisor.

The board members agreed to seek a new chief to replace Jeanette Stankowski, who resigned Jan. 29, and to pay the next chief a base salary of $53,000 a year.

Board members, in adopting an updated police chief job description, agreed that the village administrator should have supervisory powers over the new chief.

Administrator Jennifer Lopez said she was “not looking for additional responsibility,” but told board members that they could approve a village organizational chart that could have the village police chief under the village administrator.

She said some villages have a strong police chief, while others place the chief as a department head who answers to an administrator.

Trustee Randy Werner said he wanted the next police chief under the supervision of the village administrator.

“I would like to see another level of oversight,” he said.

Marathon County Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Ted Knoeck, who has been helping the village fill the chief’s vacancy, said the village board can require a chief to submit an annual report that would document whether his or her department is following policy set by the village board.

Knoeck said it is easier to discipline a police chief when it is shown that village policy is not being followed.

Board members discussed briefly qualities they would like to see in a new police chief. Trustees Cathy Schueller and Patty Schroeder-Schuett said they wanted the next chief to follow-up on any cases initiated by the sheriff’s department in the village.

In other board business:

_ Trustees voted to advertise for bids on the Royal/Gumaer Streets reconstruction project. Trustee Jon Streit, who lives in this neighborhood, abstained from the vote.

_ Administrator Lopez reported that the Department of Revenue will require the village to spend between $35,000 and $40,000 next year to correct an error where property taxes paid by B & D Fabricators in the village business park were for 11 years not directed to the village’s Tax Incremental District No. 3 fund.

She estimated that correcting the TID error will cost the owner of a $150,000 house an additional $29 in property tax next year.

“That’s not huge,” Lopez said.

The administrator said the village board will have numerous options to lessen the tax hit of correcting the Tax Incremental Finance mistake. The village board, she said, could tap its fund balance to lessen the impact of the error. She said healthy growth in the village’s tax base in 2019 would also help to minimize a tax increase needed to pay for the error.

“When we get to budget time, we have a lot of options,” she said. “It could have an impact, but it wouldn’t have to.”

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