BillWangemann.com"If you don't known where you have been you can't know where you are going."
Building a Better Relationship with the County
Sheboygan County at one time, not too many years ago, was mainly a rural area covered by family farms. While many county families still earn a living by farming this is changing. Nowhere more so than in the Township of Sheboygan, which is rapidly becoming an urban area. There is a good deal of talk about the combination of vital services, such as a combined police and fire communication center, that would serve the entire county.
We may not be far from a metro type of system of providing police, fire and ambulance services to both the city and township of Sheboygan. In other words, the city of Sheboygan and Sheboygan County would have to have an ongoing program of co-operation and a continuous flow of information in both directions. Something that is not now taking place. The recent Sheboygan Fire Department ambulance issue is a prime example of the lack of co-operation between city and county.
At a recent council meeting Mayor Perez took exception to a statement that the city and county of Sheboygan have a poor relationship with one another. The mayor stated that the city and county have a good record of co-operation and working together. It is my opinion that few members of the county board would agree with this statement.
If elected I strictly adhere to a policy of meeting with the Administrator of Sheboygan County Adam, Payne and the Chairman of the County Board Executive Committee Michael Vandersteen on a regular basis. My goal would be to keep them informed at all times of any issue that the city is deliberating that in any way may have an effect on the county. Every effort would be made to become a good neighbor to our friends in the county and to improve relations. We are not adversaries, we are neighbors!
Sheboygan County consists of 15 townships, 10 villages and 3 cities. As of the year 2000 the population of the county was over 112,000 and now is certainly close to, or over, 115,000 citizens. This fact can no longer be ignored by the City of Sheboygan.
The County of Sheboygan and the City of Sheboygan have one common goal, which is to provide the best government at the lowest cost to all our citizens, who after all are the reason that our respective governments exist.
