News Article

Date: June 9, 2006
By DAVE RANK - Daily News Staff

As vote nears, County Board takes anti-PDR tilt

On March 14 the Washington County Board voted 17-11 to approve a resolution endorsing the creation of a county-funded purchase of development rights (PDR) program, a method to preserve agricultural land and adjacent nature areas such as wetlands and woods.

In April, however, nine new supervisors were elected to the 30-member board.

Tuesday, the County Board is scheduled to debate the issue once more and vote whether to go through with the program or kill it.

While there is never a sure thing when it comes to an elected board’s vote on a controversial issue until the actual vote is taken, it appears the proposed PDR program is in trouble this time around.

Nearly all of the opposition is coming from the southern tier of the county, Germantown, Rich-field and Erin, and the cities of Hartford and West Bend.

Not surprisingly, the majority of support for a PDR program is coming from the rural communities where most of the surviving farms in the county are found.

Based on the returning county supervisors who voted in March, support for a PDR program should stand at 11-9, with the nine new supervisors still officially unheard from.

However, as a member of the Planning, Conservation and Parks Committee Wednesday, Kenneth Brandt, town of Addi-son, reversed his previous vote and sided with the anti-PDR coalition. If he maintains that position, those veteran supervisors now are split 10-10.

County Board Supervisor James Schwartz, West Bend, missed the March 14 meeting and did not cast a vote. Wednesday, he said he was leaning against PDR. "A majority of people in my district are not in favor of it," he said.

That puts the count at 10 for and 11 against PDR among the supervisors returning to the board after the April 4 election.

As for the nine new County Board supervisors, Germantown’s Mel Ewert and Daniel Knodl already have shown they oppose PDR with their PCPC votes Wednesday.

Leslie Borman, the third new supervisor from Germantown, said he was reviewing information on the proposal, but that he has yet to hear from any District 30 constituents who supported PDR. That, likely, will place him in the opposition camp Tuesday.

Gerald Schulz, town of Wayne, said he favors PDR. How else could farms be saved from subdivisions in the county, he said.

Richard Bertram, town of Bart-on, also said he favors a PDR program. Contacts from his consti-tuents all favor it, he said. "I will be looking at (the background information), but I don’t like the idea of going backwards. I didn’t feel bringing it back was in the best interest of the county. People (on the March 14 County Board) made the best judgement they could and I’d hate to second guess them. I know I wouldn’t want to be second guessed like that."

Roy Justman, West Bend, said, "I’d rather not comment on that right now. You’ll hear my opinions on it Tuesday."

Philip Laubenheimer, Jackson, said his constituents seem to be evenly divided on the issue. He would rather see the issue go to an advisory referendum. "Let the voters decide," Laubenheimer said.

Joseph Gonnering, town of Trenton, said he too is disappointed by the revote on the issue.

"It took years for the other guys to vote on it and the new guys are supposed to decide in 30 days? That’s not right," he said.

He also said it sets a bad precedent which would require every vote "to be 100 percent" or risk the resolution brought back again.

While he’s leaning toward favoring a PDR program, Gonner-ing said, he still was looking at the background information. "I’m not quite satisfied, yet."

It is interesting to note that both Bertram and Gonnering also are town chairmen.

Rick Gundrum, Slinger, said he was favoring the PDR program. "At this point I’m leaning for it," he said. "It’s definitely a quality-of-life issue."

Quality of life issues tend to cost money, he said, but to not try to preserve the county’s rural areas "could end up costing us more money in the long run.

So, based on the March 14 vote and comments made this week, here is how the County Board appears to stand on the proposed PDR program: 13 in favor, 14 opposed, with Justman, Lauben-heimer and Gonnering apparently holding the final votes to determine if the county will start a program.