Election 2022 — Shawano County Board of Supervisors District 14

In the April 5 general election, voters in Shawano County District 14 will be deciding on one spot between two candidates for representation of District 14 on the Shawano County Board of Supervisors.

Incumbent Deb Noffke will be defending her seat against challenger Jeremy Gretzinger for the spot.

NEW Media set questionnaires to the candidates in order to provide candidates opinions on key issues that the county has dealt with and discussed in recent years. Noffke did not provide answers by press time.

What qualifies you to be a member of the Shawano County Board of Supervisors?

Gretzinger: I have dealt with a lot of high pressure situations in my life. I spent three months in Iraq during the war in 2003. I am not one to throw out answers right away, but I will think about the situation at hand. I don’t want to stand politically correct, I want to stand morally right. I don’t pick a party, I just want to do what the morally right thing is to do. With my business, I have actually worked with Shawano County zoning for the last 22 years. With my landscaping company, I am always working with them on the waterways and the runoff.

The board has had thorough discussions revolving around pay for county employees. How do you believe that county employees should be compensated?

Gretzinger: If I could use Andy Popp as an example for the county, I think that he is doing two people’s jobs. I don’t know if you can do something like an average pay. Say Oconto County is paying this, Waupaca is paying this. I think a lot of it should be on the job performance. If it is time to go home and someone is still on their phone working, they should be rewarded for that. I am totally in agreement with the pay raises for the county. It is more motivation to get up and go to work every day if you know that you are getting those benefits.

The board has discussed purchasing new police vehicles, as well as, creating a replacement plan for the vehicles. Should the county look at continuing to purchase new vehicles and setting up a replacement plan for the vehicles?

Gretzinger: The thing is that, when it comes to our law enforcement, you want them to have the best tools that there are. I am not real familiar with what they throw in these cars, but if the technology is better in a vehicle — I don’t want them to have an outdated vehicle. I want them to be equipped to what they need to have. Let’s say that there is a Dodge Charger that is two-wheel drive and say it was $35,000, but if there was Chevy Tahoe that’s say $49,000, but its four wheel drive — I would look at the Tahoe, saying that they could probably use that over the Charger.

What is Shawano County doing well in your mind and how can the county continue to excel at this?

Gretzinger: Shawano County is doing well, but I think there can always be things that they are doing better. In terms of tourism, they built a road going out to the county park. That was great. That is a small step into a lot of other things.

What is Shawano County not doing so well in your mind and how can the county change that to be better in the future?

Gretzinger: I believe that there is a lot of foolish spending out there. It seems like it is more in the best interest of some individuals, rather than the county as a whole. If you look at Shawano County’s revenue, a lot of it comes from the lake. I want to try and work with the Department of Natural Resources and better our waterways. It also seems like when people build homes on the lake, they are so limited to what they can and can’t do. I want to look more and broaden that idea of things that the homeowners can do.