Spring Election shakes up local government

The Trempealeau County Board will have 10 new supervisors after six incumbents were defeated during the spring election on Tuesday.

According to unofficial results sent by the Trempealeau County Clerk’s office incumbents in Districts Two, Three, Five, Six, Nine and 12 all lost. There will also be new members in Districts Four, Seven, Eight, 11 and 15. The only incumbent to win was Jeanne Nuetter, who defeated Harlan Reinders by one vote, 99-98.

New members defeating incumbents included: Stacey Klein over Douglas Winters, 223-164; Andy Todd topped Beth Killian, 199-171; Heather Fritsch over George Brandt, 192-168; Davis Orsch over Michelle Haines, 134-112 and Robert Baecker over Tim Zeglin, 277-134. Sally Miller was also ousted from the board, losing to Richard Sacia, 200-95, as redistricting matched two former supervisor.

Former county chair Richard Miller returns to the board as he defeated Mike Popham in District Eight.

Other new members include Lori Severson in District Four, Kevin Dunn in district Seven, Riley Foltz in District 11 and David Larson in District 15.

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau school board will also look different as two of the three incumbents lost. Deb Lakey defeated Kari Marley, 1,016-889 and Adam Leavitt beat Patricia Malone, 944-938. The only incumbent to survive was Larry Moore, who topped Sara Olson, 996-878.

The Independence school board will have one new member as Jenny Solberg finished with the second-most votes with two open spots. Current board president Joe Bragger received the most votes with 376, Solberg finished with 257 while incumbent Leah Matches had 238. Also running was Mike Franks, who received 141 votes.

The new school board member will have her work cut out for her as district taxpayers rejected a $900,000 operating referendum, 299-228.

The incumbents of the Arcadia school board will all return, fighting off a strong challenger from Tonya Rebhahn.

Rebhahn (438) finished five votes behind current board president Paul Servais (443) for the third spot of three that were open. Diana Tempski (577) and Rodney Walters (523) were also reelected. Tracy Todd received 353 votes.

David Thompson defeated Daniel Zawacki, 356-62 for the Blair-Taylor School Board.

Zawacki also lost in the city of Blair’s second ward to incumbent Jill Anderson, 43-14. Registered write-in Jeremy Tranberg defeated David Donnelly in the Third Ward, 38-26.

There will be a new First Ward Alderperson in Galesville as Tory-Kale Schultz beat Randy Larson, 52-45.

In perhaps the most significant municipal election, Kevin Mayzek will be the new Arcadia mayor, defeating John Kimmel, 202-197.

Two referendums were split in the village of Trempealeau

Taxpayers voted down a proposal to invest up to $3 million to develop 20 acres into parkland and repair the village swimming pool, 203-189. They did, however, approve a resolution to have the village board continue efforts to implement at rain whistle quiet zone that would prohibit routine sounding of train whistles inside the village, except in case of an emergency, 230-161.