The Mount Horeb Area Chamber of Commerce will host its first forum for the Mount Horeb trustee candidates on Tuesday, March 30, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm at the Mount Horeb municipal building, 138 East Main Street in the board room. The event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and Chamber members are encouraged to attend.

The Mount Horeb Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors will select all questions to be used in the forum, which will be hosted by the Mount Horeb Area Chamber of Commerce and moderated by representatives from the Business Development & Retention Committee. The candidate forum will air live on MHTC Cable channel 181 and Charter channels 81 or 981 and rebroadcasts will be scheduled through Election Day, Tuesday April 6. For additional information regarding the candidates forum, contact Melissa Theisen, executive director of the Mount Horeb Area Chamber of Commerce at 608-437-5914.

Candidate bios and question/answer:

Mary Anderson

Statement: I live in the Village of Mount Horeb, a newcomer for a bit over 3 ½ years. I love this attractive small community and its vibrant and active downtown. I am currently a Realtor and work closely with people in financial difficulty trying to sell their properties. Unfortunately, I find many people in this situation and I have great compassion for them.

I am running for the Mount Horeb Village Board because I want to represent people who work hard every day, provide for their families and try to live within their means.

I was born in Janesville, Wisconsin and graduated from Craig High School in 1977. I furthered my educational training at MATC in Early Childhood, and I ran a family child care center for 10 years. Following that self-employment I took classes to earn a real estate license, and I am a graduate of the Realtors Institute. I have been selling properties for the last seven years. Recently I also took a course in distressed properties to help homeowners who are in danger of losing their homes and credit.

To round out my employment background, I’ve worked as a seamstress at Vera’s House of Bridals, worked in a factory and my first job as a teenager was detasseling corn. I am no stranger to hard work and will work just as hard for you and the people of Mount Horeb.

My charitable work includes serving on the Board of Directors at Dane County Head Start, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, teaching Sunday school and being a Church Youth Group leader. I also co-chaired the Realtor Ride, a fundraiser for the hHousing Foundation.

I am understanding of tough economic times and those experiencing them. I will look at requests for funding from a fiscally conservative point of view---it must enhance everyone’s life in the Village at the best cost available.

Question #1: Thinking about the next year, and five years down the road, what is your short term and long term vision for the Village and downtown.

• Market Mount Horeb
• Promote businesses in downtown.
• Encourage business growth in retail, commercial, and light industrial.
• Responsible and balanced growth that benefits the community.
  

Steve Haroldson

Statement: Mount Horeb is my home town. I went to grade school and high school in Mt. Horeb, graduating in 1964. I met my future wife, Vicky Haglund in high school and we were married in Mt. Horeb 42 years ago. After 11 years in the Madison area, we moved back to Mt. Horeb in 1978. Our two sons grew up here, married and now live with their wives and our five grandchildren in Perry and Vermont Townships. Mt. Horeb has been a great environment to live and raise a family.

My first venture into an elective office was in spring 2008 when I was elected a Village Trustee. I have served on Public Works and Public Safety Committee, the Parks and Recreation Committee and, for the last year, I have been Chairman of the Planning Commission.

I graduated from Mt. Horen High School in 1964. In 1988, I received my BS from Edgwood College where I majored in Economics. My business experience includes 39 years spent at Cuna Mutual Insurance in Madison. I retired in 2004 as their Chief Technology Officer. In that role, I was responsible for managing and leading a department or (sic) 700+ professional, technical and clerical staff. I prepared and supervised an annual budget that peaked at over $100 million dollars. I managed annual budgets that went up fast in some years, were flat in other years and in other years where I had to make substantial cuts to my budget because of business and general economic slowdowns in the national economy.

I learned very quickly in my career (and while growing up, too, in Mt. Horeb) that any success I might achieve would be dependant on my ability to work effectively with others. That is true when you are a member of a team or when you are in a role as a leader of that team where you may have to make tough decisions. I feel I have brought that same attitude of cooperation, open communication and fair and prompt decision making to my role as a Village Trustee these last 2 years and pledge to do the same if I am fortunate enough to be re-elected.

Question #1: Thinking about the next year, and five years down the road, what is your short term and long term vision for the Village and downtown.

Answer (SH): The new businesses that have opened in Mt, Horeb or will be opening soon has been great news. We wish them all success. The downside of that is that for the most part, we have also seen other long time local businesses close giving little any net increase in local businesses and job opportunities. We would all love to see net growth in businesses located here, but, until the state and national economy improve, that does not appear likely. In the short term, that reality necessitates the village to take a conservative approach to any proposed increased village spending which would necessitate property tax increases. Moderate property taxes that Mt. Horeb residents and businesses currently enjoy are a distinct advantage in attracting and retaining businesses.

The village has ample locations within existing village limits to accommodate any growth that is likely to occur over the next 3-5 years. Expanding beyond our existing village limits for businesses or residences should wait until demand catches up to supply. When that happens, and it eventually it will, I have no preference as to what direction the village might expand. That would include growing south of the bypass.

TIF 3 is in financial difficulty primarily because of the recession affecting our state and nation. I’m not going to promise to do anything about the recession because, obviously, neither I nor the Village Board, can change that reality. We will all have to wait for the economy to turn around before the TIF3 gets back on sound financial footing.

I have learned a lot about TIFs these last two years. They work great in booming economies and not so great in recessions. In general, I think it is wise to limit TIFs to situations where there is truly blighted areas within a community, and, even then, a TIF should be for no more that 5-7 years. That said, until TIF 3 is back on track, I will not support any new TIFs in Mt. Horeb.

Unfortunately, over the next two years, I expect that state aids to our community will continue to decline. Likewise the county will continue to push costs that traditionally are paid through the county levy onto the cities, villages and townships. Having received no funding locally so far in stimulus dollars from the federal government, I don’t think it prudent to count on them coming to our financial rescue. Until the recession ends, I do not expect any significant growth in local business or residential property values which would generate increased revenue to the village. I do not support increasing property taxes to generate additional revenue. What we need is growth in business and residential properties.

Bottom line: hope for the best and plan for the worst for the next couple years anyway.

Question #1: Thinking about the next year and five years down the road, what is your short term and long term vision for the Village and downtown?

Answer (RL): First and foremost, we need to maintain the excellent services we currently have and continue our good quality of life. I do not want future budgets leaving out the things that keep our community great. I intend to look for ways to be more efficient and keep out taxes in check.

Tom Orshall

Statement: I am Thomas C. Orshall and have lived in the village of Mt Horeb for over 40 years. I served in the US Army from 1965 to 1967. I attended Wisconsin school of electronics, I had also taken class at UW Platville, Edgewood Collage. I have also attended the Dane County Police Academy and a Federal Police Academy. I was a Police Officer for the Village until 1984 when I become a Village trustee and served for almost two terms when I had to leave because it was a conflict as I became a Federal Police Officer with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Madison WI, and at the time you could not serve two government agencies at the same time. I retired as a Federal Officer in 2006, I have worked with Local,State and Federal Government agency as an officer and also was the court officer for those agency. i have worked with Washington in the Department of Justice and was a Security specialist and work with all Department Administrators.

I was married in 1970 to my late wife Rita Orshall who passed away in 2007 from a car accident. I have two young adult, a Son Craig S.T. Orshall who is with the U.S.Coast Guard and stationed in NC. He is Married and has two girls. I also have a daughter Tonya M Lynch who works at Ingleside Nursing Home and is also attending MATC and studying to become a Nurse.

Question #1: Thinking about the next year and five years down the road, what is your short term and long term vision for the Village and downtown?

Answer (TO): I believe that at this moment the Chambe should be looking at ways to stimulate their economy by staying open longer hours. The traffic coming into Mt Horeb and the down town area is very heavy between the hours of 4:30pm and 6:30pm. I believe some of those vehicles would stop if business were open.
We need to also work on bringing business to are community offer incentive's like tax breaks, or lower water rates and electoral rates. I think when a business is just starting out would help them and show that we do care about them. I believe now is not the time to be talking of TIF s that's not working, and I see no one pushing to get them up and running. The Village has got to get more involved and be more concerned about the spending, find ways to cut back and make every dollar count. I see one concern about or a vision for mt Horeb it is and should be corporation and to provide a place of choice for new and existing business. We want to encourage businesses that share a forward thinking and flexible approach to managing economic growth and change. I believe our vision should be to maintaining our home town identity which makes Mt Horeb both a great place to work and live.

PS I regret that I will not be able to attend your meeting because of medical reasons for myself and by sister in law who is having surgery that day. I wish all of the candidates the best and thank you for the invite.