Trustee set to be appointed Thursday
By Scott Bellile
Three finalists are in the running for an open seat on the Hortonville Village Board.
The village board on May 2 recommended Shauna Strelow, Eric Garthus and Brian Rathsack for a second round of interviews. The board is scheduled to appoint one of the three to the village board at its next meeting Thursday, May 16, at 6 p.m.
The six current village board members were asked to recommend two finalists for another interview but deadlocked on the three candidates.
If a majority of village board members cannot agree on which finalist to appoint, then the seat will remain open until the April 2020 election, Hortonville Village Administrator David DeTroye said.
Four other applicants interviewed for the vacancy last week: former Village President Al Habeck, Klay Heise, Luke Abitz and Ellsworth St. Cyr.
Nick Knuth, a previous village board candidate, applied for the seat but did not attend his interview.
The vacancy resulted from Trustee Jeanne Bellile, whose term did not expire until 2020, being elected village president over Habeck in April. The board opted to appoint someone to finish the remainder of Bellile’s trustee term rather than hold a special election.
Shauna Strelow
Strelow aspires to see Hortonville maintain its unique character, not “get lost in the Greenville mess” as the next-door town continues growing and pursues incorporation as a village.
She said of Hortonville, “I really just want to start having a part in understanding where the village is going, helping to bring back some of the things that I remember from my childhood, creating an environment for my kids that I enjoyed growing up and that I think made me the person I am today, while also making the village progress and become better but without losing small-town charm that I think is really, really sweet about Hortonville.”
She said a recent shortfall for the village was the handling of the traffic detour when the Mill Street bridge was replaced. Getting out of her driveway each day was a challenge.
As for a success, she enjoys community festivals such as Hortonville Homecoming and would like to see more.
Areas that could use improvement if the funding were available include the parks and Black Otter Lake, she said.
Strelow lives on South Mill Street with her husband and two young children. She worked at Charlie’s Drive-In for many years and now works for a company where she was one of three whistleblowers to report fraud occurring there, she said.
Eric Garthus
A Hortonville resident for 16 years, Garthus said he likes the direction the village is headed.
He wants to join the board to give back to his community.
“I think that we’re really becoming a destination for folks that work in Appleton and they want to live in a nice, safe community. … Whether it’s supporting our schools or making sure that our village is safe, trying to keep our taxes low, any of those types of things we can do to help attract people to come join our village would be good,” Garthus said.
A recent success for the village, Garthus said, is the boom in construction on the village’s south side near his home on Honeysuckle Drive.
He considers the village’s current water rates a shortfall.
“That’s something that I would personally like to be involved in if I were on the board is figuring out the best plan to try to pay off that reserve fund as quickly as possible and then hopefully see water rates decrease back to a more normal level,” he said.
If the village had the money to make an improvement, he said Black Otter Lake could use more recreational opportunities like a swimming area.
In his spare time, Garthus enjoys attending his children’s school activities and fishing.
Brian Rathsack
Rathsack said he wants to join the village board because some past decisions were made improperly.
“I feel some new looks on the board and just more honesty and just a different approach would be better,” Rathsack said. “I value this community and I want to continue it to be a place where people want to reside.”
He said both a success and shortfall for the village was the handling of last year’s extension of his street, Michael Ritger Street.
The village board failed to communicate with property owners on the project, so the residents formed a citizen group to discuss the issue with the village board and reached a consensus, Rathsack said.
Hypothetically if Hortonville received a $1 million grant, Rathsack said he would like to see improvements to parks and Black Otter Lake, a foundation established for residents in need, or incentives for prospective businesses to locate in the village.
His envisions a community with a lower cost of living.
The Hortonville native volunteers by coaching baseball and serving on the Hortonville Youth Sports Board.
“I show that I want to make this community better, not only for the village residents but for the children that are coming up, to try and keep them in this area or at least this community,” Rathsack said.