Iola’s village-wide bar fight

IOLA – The Iola Village Board Police Committee met March 4 to follow up on claims from local bar owners that the Iola Police Department is targeting their bars.
The issue of police targeting came up at the Jan. 14 village board meeting, where local bar owners came to address the board about concerns about how law enforcement was being handled around the village.
Sheri Miller, owner of the Thirsty Perch; Laura Marker, owner of 10LA Corner Bar; and Mark McCoy, owner of Mark McCoy’s Flat Tracker Tap; along with Rusty Grimm, who runs the Rustic Grill, were present at the meeting to voice their concern of Iola officers sitting outside of their establishments and pulling over patrons as they are leaving.
They called for a meeting to be able to voice these concerns in hopes to have them addressed by the Village Board.
The Police Committee board met Feb. 5 to do that and Miller, McCoy and Marker were present to make the board aware of police targeting concerns.

It takes a village
One of the issues brought up at the meeting Feb. 5 was that of the current Iola police budget, which in 2024 was $325,357.
McCoy said he believes the village can decrease that budget if the policing is done solely through the county, something that the Village of Fremont did in March 2024.
In Waupaca County there are seven active police departments, including Weyauwega, Waupaca, Marion, New London, Manawa, Clintonville and Iola.
Of the seven police departments, Iola is the only village with an active department and the rest are city departments. Iola has the lowest budget of the seven departments listed, with the next closest budget being Manawa with $352,743.

The number of officers employed by the village was also brought up, with three full-time officers and four part-time officers.
Laura Krogwold, the village clerk and treasurer, said the part time officers fill in for full-time officers as needed or during larger events like the Iola Car Show.
At the close of the Feb. 5 meeting, the committee decided to research the concerns raised during the meeting and find the evidence to back up the claims.
“This is important, this affects the entire community, and we will have a follow up,” said Pamela Parks, a village trustee and chair of the Police Committee.

Recording public meetings

The Police Committee met Feb. 24 for a closed session, in this meeting they went over claims made in the Feb. 5 meeting and claims within a letter that was dropped off to the village hall by Miller.
The next public meeting of the Police Committee was March 4 to share the findings of the committee, which began with a dispute over the legality of recording the meeting.
McCoy started to record the meeting when he was asked to stop by Parks and Jennifer Schustek, the village president, citing a Wisconsin Statute.
The Wisconsin statute in question is statute 19.90, which states: “The open meetings law requires a governmental body to make a reasonable effort to accommodate any person desiring to record, film, or photograph its proceedings in open session.”
Schustek said that the manner in which he was recording created a disturbance and interfered with the effective functioning of the meeting.
“His actions appeared to be aimed at creating a ‘gotcha’ moment, rather than recording a respectful and productive environment,” she said. “Given this disruption, it was determined that his recording fell outside of the bounds of the statute at the time.”
She went on to say, people will be allowed to record meetings as long as it does not cause a disturbance.
“We value transparency and community engagement, and encourage all interested individuals to record our public meetings, provided they do so respectfully and in accordance to the law,” she said.
McCoy said he is planning on recording meetings, saying he wants people to find out what is going on in public meetings.
 ”The reason why I recorded the meeting and will continue to now is because they pick and choose what they write in the minutes,” McCoy said. “They misquoted everybody; they picked apart five sentences and then just add the first sentence and the last sentence. Makes you sound like an idiot.”
Parks read a statement at the conclusion of the public comments portion of the meeting the following statement:
“After considering the comments made at February 5, 2025, public meeting of the Iola Village Police Committee and complaints made by Sherri Miller in a letter to the Police Committee chair, members of the Police Committee have determined that the officers of the Iola Village Police Department do not target the bars and their patrons during the course of their duties. Further, the Police Committee has determined that specific issues raised were not supported by verifiable facts or data. To illustrate, a complaint that nine people were pulled over within sight of Thirsty Perch during the course of one evening on a specific date had no basis in fact as there were not traffic stops at all on the date in question. The Iola Village Police Committee believes the taxpayers of Iola get good value for their tax dollars through the operation of our police department. Unless we receive a sworn affidavit alleging specific incidents that can be independently verified, the Police Committee considers the matter of these bar owner complaints to be closed.”