Holton chairman faces challenge on April 6

Richard Gumz, who has been the town of Holton chairman since 2003, faces a challenge from Dennis Venzke in the April 6 election.

Prior to being elected town chairman, Gumz served two terms as a town supervisor, from 1999 to 2003. Gumz is a dairy farmer.

His challenger, Venzke, 64, works in construction during the summer and as a logger in the winter months.

Why have you decided to run for office in the town of Holton?

Gumz: “We’ve got a lot of loose ends that need tying up right now,” he said, referring to a pair of bridge projects, a budget shortfall caused by a tax levy error and the need for a town-wide reassessment of property values.

“We have so many expenses this year, and I understand them. I’m able to work with Paula (Ruesch, town treasurer) really well on that.”

Gumz said he thought about not running for reelection, but “that would almost be like you’re running from the problems.”

Venzke: “For the last 10 years, a lot of town of Holton residents have asked me to run for a position. With work, I was always just busy. Work always came first. I pretty much just said ‘No, I don’t have the time to do it.’” “Starting about eight or nine years, I started doing mission work through our church, but we don’t do that anymore, so now I’ve got more free time to give back to the community.”

Why should voters choose you over your opponent? What makes you the best candidate for the job?

Gumz: “I know all the details of what’s going on right now. It’s the experience thing. My opponent has no board experience. “ Gumz stresses that he is friends with Venzke, but he thinks anyone running to be town chairman should spend some time as a town supervisor first so they understand parliamentary procedure and how the meetings are run.

Venzke: “Well, there are a lot of concerns over the (town) buildings. And sometimes, when people are in for long terms, in the latter part of their years it’s like they don’t seem to do much to help the public. It kind of reminds me of Congressman Dave Obey. He was in so many years, and in the last how many years, did he really help the people?”

What do you see as the biggest issues facing the township? What role do you have in addressing in those issues?

Gumz: “It’s the finances.”

Gumz said the town will need to pay $100,000 or more toward replacing the Denzine bridge on Holton Road, based on a decision made by the state, which will be paying for a majority of the estimated $500,000 project.

“You have no choice. When they (the state) say to do it, you either do it, or next time, you get to do it on your own. We didn’t choose that.”

Another project is the replacement of four worn-out culverts on Fence Road. Marathon County will provide 50 percent of the funding for the $120,000 project, but that leaves the town with about $60,000 to contribute, he said.

Besides the expense of these road projects, Gumz said the town will have to pay its assessors an extra $20,000 this year to do a full property re-valuation so the town’s assessment ratio is accurate.

On top of that, he said the town board will have to address an unexpected shortfall of $24,000 after the town clerk mistakenly forgot to add a debt payment to the town’s property tax levy this year. That money was needed to pay off a town hall reconstruction done in 2020.

Venzke: “Well, our biggest issues are basically taking care of the roads and the concerns of the people.”

Venzke said there’s been a lot of concerns about how the town hall renovation project was handled.

“There’s still some issues that need to be fixed. There was, you could say, unnecessary money spent on that town hall. I would say there are a lot of residents that don’t know what happened down there with the town hall building.”

“You sometimes have to assert a little bit of authority so these situations are getting taken care of.”

What is your plan for working with other town officials to make sure the town’s business is getting taken care of?

Gumz: “We need to talk town business at town board meetings and discuss it fully there — and only there.”

He said he will continue to work with the town clerk and town treasurer to fix the town’s problems.

Venzke: “Number one, with all of the board members, you’ve got to communicate with them. If somebody calls, you have to let everybody know what’s going on. The communication is what’s lacking.”

“I went to some meetings there this summer, just to see what was going on. Basically, you need to communicate with the people and let everybody know what’s going on.”

Editor’s note: Interviews with the four candidates running for two seats on the Holton town board will be run in next week’s edition.

Dennis Venzke