By Adam Johnson
The election on April 1 will see a contested election for the position of president of the Iola Village Board. The visions of Mike Richberg and incumbent Jennifer Schustek may be different in some areas, but both relate a concern and love for the residents who reside in the village and its future.
Questions were presented to the candidates, and what follows are their written answers to those questions. The answers have only been edited to correct misspellings, punctuation, and news style.
This is part 1 of two articles on the candidates for the position. Part 2 on Jennifer Shustek will run tomorrow.
Mike, tell us about yourself, what experience you bring to the position you are applying for, and why you wish to run.
I was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Cornell University in 1982. I spent 11 years in the US Army after college and was deployed to Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I left the Army in 1994 and then had a 28-year career in commercial finance with GE Capital/Wells Fargo. During both my military and civilian careers, I operated in a variety of leadership roles.
I served as board secretary for TLS Veterans (renamed Veterans Path to Hope) for four years. This is a nonprofit helping to end veterans’ homelessness in the northern suburbs of Illinois.
I am currently the vice president of the Scandinavia Booster Club. I have been involved with the booster club for four years. In addition, I have been the sponsorship chairperson for both the golf outing and the Corn Roast for three years.
I am running because as I have done for a good portion of my life, I believe in giving back to the community and helping to make where you live a better place. I really enjoy living in Iola and believe it is a very special place with a lot of potential. I would like to play a role in helping us realize that potential. I believe that my experiences and leadership skills would be a tremendous asset to not only the Village Board but to the community in general.
If elected, what are your short-term goals to accomplish for the community?
If elected, I want to immediately improve the transparency of how the village board operates. I would like to increase access to the board for all the village residents and businesses.
There are a few simple steps that I believe the community will welcome and will help make the village board more accessible.
How would you improve transparency with the public, and what steps would you initiate to make transparency better?
Improved transparency does not require any major expenditure necessarily.
1) I would like to expand the open session prior to the start of the board meeting to give residents more time to present issues.
2) Ensure all residents’ questions have been answered before adjourning the board meeting.
3) Ensure the board faces the audience rather than each other so that attending residents can hear what is being said.
4) Change the meeting time to 6:30 p.m. to make it more advantageous for residents to attend the meeting.
5) Record all village board meetings and have the recordings posted on the village website.
6) Perhaps a Facebook page for Iola alone.
What are your long-term goals?
I would like to revitalize the downtown area and create a similar environment to the one the City of Waupaca created when they re-energized their downtown area.
Obviously not on that scale, but something that will give the Main Street area a more vibrant atmosphere.
What incentives would be suggested to encourage empty buildings to be filled?
This question will require more research on my part, but I don’t believe a “top down” approach is the answer. It will require the village and property owners to work together. Tax incentives may be considered to help renovate buildings or to entice new businesses to come to Iola. That said, it will take a deeper understanding of budgetary limitations on my part before I can propose any level of incentive.
What problems facing the Iola community and its residents are the most important to you and how do you wish to address those problems?
As many people have seen, there are several vacant buildings in the village, especially on Main Street. I would like to fill those buildings with new businesses. We could possibly look at using incentive programs to entice potential business owners to look at Iola. I would also like to find a way to repurpose the vacant elderly care facility and possibly see it become some level of business office that would help bring jobs to the community.
Some members of the community feel Iola is too small to support a police department. What are your views on Iola having a police department?
To be fair, there are a number of residents who feel the Police Department is fine as currently constituted, there are arguments on both sides. I have always been pro-law enforcement, but if there is a cost-effective way to keep the village residents safe and save money, the board would not be doing its job if they did not at least consider those options. We as board members must do what is right for all residents, that is what we are here to do … period!
What do you like most about living in this community and why?
We moved to Iola in 2020, and I love the small town feel the community has. My wife, Jennifer, and I have gotten to meet so many great people in a relatively short period of time. The town and the surrounding community were so welcoming, it made it very easy to settle in here.