Advertise with us | Subscribe

Your Hometown Newspaper Since 1854

print article Print     e-mail article E-mail
Published March 12, 2009, 01:59 AM

North Hudson is losing a county supervisor

The results of a November referendum that reduced the number of St. Croix County Board members will cut North Hudson’s representation in half.

By: Jon Echternacht, Hudson Star-Observer

The results of a November referendum that reduced the number of St. Croix County Board members will cut North Hudson’s representation in half.

The North Hudson Board of Trustees mulled over the redistricting plan at its regular March meeting last Tuesday.

The referendum reduced the total number of supervisors from 31 to 19 members, and a new redistricting plan has to be adopted by Nov. 15, 2009. The plan uses 2000 census numbers.

The village will drop from two supervisors to one, but another redistricting is set for 2011 using the numbers from the 2010 census.

“After the next census we could gain another supervisor,” said Administrator Gloria Troester, depending on how the change in population is factored into the next redistricting plan. She said the current population of the village is about 3,700 according to state estimates. North Hudson’s 2000 census population was 3,463.

A Wisconsin statute of Jan. 20, 2006, allowed county boards to reduce the number of supervisory districts between the regular 10-year census recordings. The rules require each district to be equal in population, and with 19 supervisors the goal is as close to 3,324 people in each district as possible. With a reduction of about 38 percent in the number of supervisors across the county most, if not all, districts will lose at least one representative.

The rules for redistricting call for each unit to be equal in population with the deviations between districts minimized to the greatest extent possible. Also the districts must be compact and follow existing ward boundaries. The aim is to create equal representation of the population.

It could be helpful to the village, however. “It would be good to have a single voice,” said Troester.

County Clerk Cindy Campbell said the current redistricting plan is geared toward the April 2010 election.

“In 2011, everything is wiped out and we start (the process) over again,” Campbell said, “and the redistricting will have to be approved by the state because it affects the Assembly.”

The referendum to reduce the number of St. Croix County supervisors passed by a 31,460–9,358 margin in the Nov. 4 general election.

Other action

In other action at the March 3 meeting the board:

  • Approved claims of $20,222.98 for December and February. Trustees Colleen O’Brien-Berglund and Joe Cothern were absent.

  • Adopted an ordinance amending the floodplain zone by a 5-0 margin. President Larry Larsen said the change involved a monstrous administrative change but no substantive change.

  • Authorized soliciting of a loan for not more than $50,000 to purchase a new snowplow, security windows in the Village Hall and a police vehicle. The village snowplow broke down in the last wet snow of February. The cost of a new plow was estimated at $4,400.

  • Approved an independent contract agreement with a building inspector and zoning administrator.

  • Adopted a new fee schedule for various village services and license requirements.

  • Reduced a letter of credit for DCCI Land Planners for The Ridges Phase II development. A slowdown in the housing market has delayed the original plan for the project to be finished in five years.

  • Heard from NHPD Chief Mark Richert, who reported a CARD Grant would cover nearly all the expense of purchasing 3,000 tubes for preliminary breath test units and two hand-held radar units for his department.

  • Announced that the next regular meeting of the board would be March 31 because of the April 7 election, which would be followed by a reorganization meeting of the board. President Larsen said there would be no committee meetings in April.

    Tags: , , , , , 

    More from around the web