Village Board president apologizes for comments
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
A large number of East Troy Lions Club members attended the Dec. 7 meeting of the East Troy Village Board to voice their concerns with the future of the East Troy Lions Public Library building and to correct recent statements by the board president about exactly who built the building.
Lion Mark Rhode addressed the board Monday night saying he wanted to “get it on record” that the library building was not purchased with taxpayer money as Village Board President Randy Timms stated in a recent editorial in the newspaper. (See Page 6 for Timms’ retraction.)
In the editorial, Timms suggested a solution to the issue of where East Troy School District administration would be housed if Doubek Elementary School was the new home of the library might be in the library building over by the schools.
Timms incorrectly stated the building in question had already been paid for by taxpayers and the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for them again if some type of agreement could be made between the School District and the village.
“I apologize,” Timms said to the Lions Club members. “I didn’t even think of that at the time. It never even occurred to me when I wrote that.”
Timms went on to say that there had been no decisions made in the situation and the matter hadn’t even reached the Village Board level because the Library Steering Committee and School District were still working on a possible solution.
Rhode said the club and its members just wanted to be considered when the decisions were being made about the library building and they wanted the public to know it wasn’t build with taxpayer dollars.
Rhode said construction on the library building began in 1968 and was built by the Lions Club with donations and work from community members and businesses. He said the building opened in 1970 as a youth center.
Rhode went on to outline how the building was eventually donated to the village to serve as a library in 1979 when there was a need for a library and no money in the village to provide one. He said at the time there was a “gentleman’s agreement” to allow the Lions Club to use part of the building for storage, which still exists today.
Rhode said with all the talk about a new library and the question as to whether that library might be put in Doubek Elementary School after the new school is built, the Lions Club members felt they should have a say in things. He did acknowledge that legally, the club has no right to the building, something that was determined back in 2007.
Timms told Rhode and the Lions at the meeting that the Steering Committee wanted input from all the area organizations and businesses in regard to the new library and he understood their concerns.
Judge gets a raise
It was a night for apologies from board members Monday, the second round coming when Municipal Judge Michael Cotter addressed the board and asked for a $1,500 increase in the municipal judge salary.
In a memo to the board dated Dec. 7, Cotter requested the municipal judge salary be increased to $7,500 beginning with the April 2016 term. Cotter is running for re-election as judge in the Spring General Election.
In the memo, Cotter informed the board the last salary increase for the position was in 2002. He also had researched the caseload and salaries of municipal judges in the surrounding communities, which showed the $6,000 the position pays was the second lowest in the area.
“I fell bad as a board member that 13 years have gone by and we haven’t done this,” board member Forty Renucci said. “It’s ridiculous that we haven’t done an increase.”
Board member Dusty Stanford said he “whole heartedly agreed.”
The board voted unanimously to increase the municipal judge salary, which will take effect in the beginning of April
