News, Waterford

Roanhouse faces challenger for Village president

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

When Village of Waterford residents vote next week, two familiar names will be on the ballot for Village President.

Tom Roanhouse, the incumbent, will be challenged by current Trustee Jim Schneider.

If Schneider loses, he would still hold his position on the Village Board.

Roanhouse is a lifelong resident of Waterford, and in addition to serving as board president, he is a Racine County Board supervisor.

He said his life has been community activism.

“Serving as the village president is the natural continuation and extension of my community activism,” he said.

Schneider, meanwhile, said he wanted to use more than 50 years of education and experience in business to grow Waterford’s retail and commercial areas.

“I can assist in making Waterford a destination, and a place to work, live and recreate,” he said.

 

Village Board

Running for the two trustee positions are Jerry Filet and Tamara Pollnow, plus challengers Kathleen Nargis and Lance Poltrock.

Filut, the first of the incumbents, is the chairman of the village’s personnel committee, and is on the Community Development Authority.

He spent 32 years with the Milwaukee Police Department, and has an associate’s degrees in police science. During that time, he worked with the Milwaukee mayor and aldermen on various projects, and has experience negotiating labor contracts.

“I will help to create a budget that will have the least financial impact on the taxpayers as possible,” he said.

Nargis is semi-retired, working part-time as executive assistant for the Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce. In the past, she owned a decorative painting and stencil shop.

She is currently on the Plan Commission for the Village of Waterford.

“I feel the village is poised for growth and that this growth needs to be well thought out and make fiscal sense,” Nargis said. “As an elected official, I would do my best to listen to our residents and take that information into account while making the best decision for all taxpayers.

“I believe we need to work hard at promoting our local businesses and finding ways to attract new business to our village,” she added. “I’m a fiscal conservative that believes in transparency in decision making.”

Poltrock, meanwhile, has lived in Waterford for eight years, and owns a small business.

“I am for small business and consider myself a conservative,” he said. “I’m for less government and keeping taxes low. I want to be an asset to the community and to help make Waterford greater than it already is.”

Pollnow is the second of the two incumbents, and said in her time on the board, she has worked to keep the tax levy and mill rate below average.

Key for her is economic development.

“Because of this, I am in the process of developing a strategic plan to review our resources in order to determine if there are more cost efficient ways to manage our departments or services,” she said. “The population growth of the village over the past few years has added additional needs and demands on the budget.”

She said she would be diligent in researching those needs.

Editor’s note: Candidate information for Poltrock and Pollnow was taken from a candidate profile from the village newsletter.

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