Davis, McCrea are elected to School Board
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With three incumbents leaving and one veteran switching aldermanic districts, the overall face of the Whitewater Common Council will look different at the end of the month.
According to unofficial results from the spring general election April 7, former council member Craig Stauffer will serve District 1, and Christopher Grady will represent District 3.
Current council member Stephanie Abbott, who represents District 2, will now represent District 5 as part of her relocation in the city. At its April 9 meeting, the council is scheduled to discuss how it will fill the remainder of Abbott’s District 2 seat.
The most stability in this spring’s municipal race came in an at-large seat, where current Council President Patrick Singer ran unopposed.
In a three-person race to assume two seats on the Whitewater Unified School Board, incumbent Dan McCrea and newcomer Kelly Davis edged out opponent Jim Stewart. In the past, Stewart had served on the Common Council and School Board.
City Clerk Michele Smith emphasized the tentative nature of the election night results. A board of canvassers will be going through the ballots to certify vote totals.
“Up until Friday (April 10), late-arriving absentee ballots will be accepted,” Smith wrote in an email. “They will be opened on Monday morning (April 13).”
The changing of the guard means a number of veterans are leaving elected office in the city.
In District 1, incumbent Phil Frawley, appointed to the council nearly two years ago, chose not to seek re-election.
Veteran council member Jim Winship stepped down from his District 3 seat in December. Appointee resident Brienne Diebolt-Brown, who did not have long-term aspirations of serving on the council, has been keeping the seat warm through the winter months.
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student Sarah Bregant has been representing District 5, and she also chose not to seek re-election.
Over at the School Board, incumbent Thayer Coburn chose not to seek re-election.
This spring, a number of issues – including parking, the city’s housing stock, wastewater and municipal-university relations – were cited as some of Whitewater’s top issues by candidates.
Stauffer, who sat on the council a decade ago, recently told the Register, “The university is a big economic generator for the city, but when you don’t have families, you lose what makes Whitewater – its character.”
While new to the political arena, Grady has worked on several civic-related projects in the past, including the recently completed zoning rewrite endeavor.
Speaking on one of the city’s largest upcoming expenditures – upgrading the wastewater treatment facility – Grady recently said, “It’s going to be a big expenditure. My engineering background will be a good help in looking at what they’re dong, and whether it is truly needed.”
Davis, who is new to the political arena, had this to say about the Whitewater Unified School District at a candidate’s forum last month: “It might not be obvious, but our school district contributes in any number of ways to the quality of life in this community, and I would urge people to think about that.”
All seven members of the Whitewater Common Council serve two-year terms, while members of the Whitewater Unified School Board serve three-year terms.
