The Kronenwetter village president's race
Challengers David Baker and Aaron Myszka face off for village president
The Wausonian already ran previews for the Kronenwetter village president primary. Long-time village president Chris Voll faced challengers in board member Aaron Myszka and former County Board member and Kronenwetter resident David Baker.
We had all three of them fill out a survey making their cases to voters.
Voters in February selected Baker and Myszka to continue on to the April 1 spring election, meaning that either way, Kronenwetter will have new leadership. Both agree in subsequent interviews that means voters are looking for change.
Both candidates acknowledge some of the problems - the village has a bad reputation right now with employees leaving via a revolving door. The village went through two administrators, who started and resigned, in 2024 alone. Both want to bring unity.
For these presidential previews, The Wausonian decided to give the candidates a call and dive a little deeper into some of their answers (We did the same for the Weston previews, which will be coming soon).
Here’s what they had to say, in alphabetical order. You should also review the candidates’ survey responses in the preview linked above.
David Baker
Baker says outside of village politics, life in the village is pretty good. He points to a recent report listing Kronenwetter as one of top safest places to live in Wisconsin. It’s the village board where things are chaotic, and he attributes that to poor leadership at the top. The board isn’t following Robert’s Rules of Order, is letting residents in the audience weigh in any time they feel like it, and that board members aren’t following proper decorum and speaking whenever.
Baker, who spent time on the Marathon County Board, wants to see stricter adherence to the rules much like the board practices (which, with 38 members as the second largest county board in the country, is a necessity). He says interestingly committee meetings don’t have that same lack of decorum.
Baker says residents are clamoring for more development, more retail and other options in the village. He wonders why more of that hasn’t occurred and would like to work toward that. He says often the board speaks about vendors and others doing business before the board in a bad way - and he wants that to stop.
He also says the village needs to focus on fixing its finances. He points to a $3 million discrepancy between the budget and the village’s audited financials. Financial reports were hard to come by in the past. And, he says they were told incorrect information about how close they were to the levy limit, which is impactful since the village’s finances are troubled.
Baker adds that new finance director John Jacobs seems to have a better handle on things and that the village should start getting regular financial reports again soon. And he’s bullish on new clerk Jennifer Poyer, who was recently named village clerk after serving the village in a communications role.
And, Baker adds, he has spoken to at least two people who have said they would be interested in serving as village administrator if he is elected. “It seems like there are people willing to give Kronenwetter another chance,” Baker says.
Why choose him? Baker says he’s made it a point to run a positive campaign, but he touts his leadership, experience and time available (he’s cut back and how much time he spends on his business) to lead the village.
Aaron Myszka
Myszka is serving his first term on the village board, and he highlighted the same issues with meeting decorum that Baker mentioned. Like Baker, he wants to follow Robert’s Rules of Order more closely to ensure meetings are more orderly and don’t get off track, including having members speak when recognized by the board chair (The village president) and not allowing residents to chime in during meetings outside of public comment.)
Myszka told The Wausonian he went to a Robert’s Rules of Order training in Tomahawk put on by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities in anticipation of being elected. He wants to put more of those practices into place
Myszka also addressed the village’s staffing issues, saying he wanted to see more teamwork and communication to start rebuilding village culture. Myszka says he’s been purposely being as positive as possible to be a breath of fresh air for the village. “I want to show people there is someone for all residents, not just a select few,” Myszka says.
He thinks a change in leadership at the top can help change culture and inspire more people to apply for positions in the village. That includes hiring an administrator, a planning tech and a treasurer.
Like Baker, Myszka highlighted the fact that the village was just named No. 8 on a list of safest Wisconsin municipalities. He aims to support the police and fire departments to help keep it that way. He has young children and so safety along with low taxes would be a priority for his administration.
Myszka says voters should select him because he wants to end the toxic division and aims to be a breath of fresh air for the village. He says his slogan is “Our village, our future.”
Ambulance
Recently the village’s fire chief put out a proposal for the village to end its current contract with Riverside Fire and instead form a village ambulance service. The proposal has been controversial since then.
On the ambulance service, Myszka says he wants to do what is ultimately in the village’s best interest. He says the current contract is through 2026, and they would need to give Riverside 90 days’ notice if they were to terminate the contract.
He says Riverside is trying to improve some shortcomings in the contract, including what Myszka describes as joint training sessions not getting done and residents being billed as non-residents.
“As information changes, my stance will change as well,” Myszka says.
Baker said the ambulance issue was one of the reasons people started telling him to pay attention more to the village board in the first place. At first, Baker said he was in favor of the village running its own ambulance service, but the more he learned, the more he changed his mind.
He says Riverside is doing a pretty good job, and a lot about the proposal didn’t make much sense right now, though he’s open to the idea in the future, or even some kind of hybrid system such as a joint purchase of an ambulance that’s a Kronenwetter unit but run by Riverside.
About the vote
The election will take place on Tuesday, April 1 (the spring election is always held on the first Tuesday of the month). Early voting has already begun.
The Wausonian has also interviewed Mark Maloney and Jim Pinsonneault about the Weston village president race and sent questionnaires to the six Kronenwetter board candidates. Those will run later this week.
The Wausonian believes in providing election coverage to all outside of the paywall, so this and all previews will be accessible. Click below to become either a free or paid subscriber and support our work today!