IT ALL HAPPENED ONE EVENING IN NORWALK - SEPT. 30th 1999
It is the evening of the first information meeting of seven such meetings
sponsored by the N.O.W. Committee. I had arranged to ride over with
the Baurenfiends. Another member of the Committee, Estes Parrish, had
supposedly arranged for the meeting to be held at the Norwalk Community
Center. Mike and I followed her to Norwalk and to the old Norwalk School
building which was were Estes, assumed that the meeting was to be held.
The time was 7:05 when we arrived. The building was dark, the entrance
door was still padlocked. So Ms. Parrish went to get the key. Returned
some time later to inform us:, Joan Gnewikow, (Wife of Norwalks Mayor,
Doug. Gnewikow) Mike and I, that Barbara Ornes Norwalk Village Clerk
was on her way in with the key. In the meantime Larry Laufenberg, Pres. of
the Norwalk Ontario School Board shows up and thinks that maybe, Barbara
is down at the Fire Station/Municipal Center, thinking that is where the
meeting is to be held. So he volunteers to run down and check and returns
a few minutes later with the information that is the case.
While Larry was gone, Lois and George Newman, had arrived. So we all
head down to the Fire Station. Upon our arrival, Mike tries to phone his
wife Donna, who has the handouts for the meeting, to tell her of the change
of plans, but she has already left.
The Time Now Is About 7:45.
The discussion now centers around "what went wrong"
Barb Ornes says,
I think part of your problem there was no publicity. You have got to get
signs in the business places.
Joan Gnewikow, fully agreed saying,
"Especially should there be notices at the Nutrition Center"
Mike said, "Obviously we did a poor job of advertising it. So lets just
scheduled it again at this place. Referring to the Fire Station.
There was a few minutes discussion on hunting mule deer and what
they were and looked like. This was initiated by Joan saying that her
husband Doug was out west hunting mule deer.
Mike: What are mule deer- are they a cross between a mule and a deer?
Laughter. Several minutes were spent discussing the charactristics etc.
of mule deer versus Wisconsin deer.
Then the discussion went into what should be done for the six remaining
scheduled meetings. The next one being this coming Monday nite - October
4th at Ontario. All agreed that a effort must be made to do as Barb
suggested, get eye catching flyers in as many business places in the locality
of the meetings as possible.
Mike: When we had the meetings in Wilton we did not put out much
advertising and we had a pretty good turnout. So I am just reaching the
conclusion that it is not as big and issue in this district as it is in ours.
Barb: I think that people are just waiting to see numbers.
Mike: One of the reason we wanted to come to the Norwalk & Ontario area
is more or less to introduced ourselves to the communities as to why we
are here and what we are doing. We are trying to solve a problem over there
and put a face on who we are over here.
Larry Laufenberg: We are planning a district meeting at the Bookwood
School and maybe your committee would be interested in participating.
Mike: That is certainly something to consider.
Barb: When is the meeting to be.
Larry: Possibly about mid October. We are planning on sending out a district
wide mailing with a flyer informing the voters of the district about
the three items that will be on our referendum ballot. 1. The attachment
question, 2. The $1,800.000.00 bonding for new class rooms and
improvements and 3. The question of whether to request $525,000 in excess
of the Revenue Caps.
Mike: The scariest thing I hear is that "it is a done deal, isn't it?"
No!! it is not a done deal and if people think it is going to happen
automatically and some one else is going to make it happen and I think that
there are those who are planning to derail this hoping that this is what will
happen. They are counting on the fact that people just won't go out to vote.
I think one of our job is that we are going to have to call people, we have to
mail to them. We have had a good amount of contributions but still not
enough if we really want to do it right. We want to target our money where it
will get the most positive results and I think a mailer is one way but at
present we do not have the funds to do so.
Barb: Our newsletter going out tomorrow just list November 2nd as the
fall election. There is no political candidates on the ballot.
Mike: Normally there would be radio and TV advertisements reminding the
people of the election. We do not have the money to do that.
Larry: The projections that the Norwalk-Ontario Board have put out look
very favorable to us. However, until we have the numbers from the DPI
which we were suppose to have tomorrow (Oct 1st) now been deferred until
Monday Oct 4th. we can't say for sure. At this point the N-O school board
is 100% for the attachment. Unless the paper comes out on Monday the
day before the referendum reminding people to vote people tend to forget.
Mike: Then the paper comes out three days after the election. Some one
asked, "Did you vote?" You say, "No! I forgot."
Donna Bauenfiend Arrives:
"I was terribly lost. I asked and they said it was
over by the school but then when I didn't find you then I thought I would
just drive around until I found Mikes car."
Joan: Arn't you glad that this was not a city of 100,000 population?
Bill to Larry: What are your mailing going to be like?
Larry: The plans are: There is going to be a map of the proposed district
along side Cashton and possible Hillsboro - showing comparables. Showing
what valuation the attachment area will be bringing to the district. What
will have to be build in N-O area to accommodate the new students, the
bonding necessary to provide the necessary funds. Also another segment
explaining and asking the voters to approve the raising of the Revenue Levy.
Barb:
What happens if the attachment goes through and you get No's to the other
two questions?
Larry: We will just have to look for additional money. It will kind of an iffy
time.
Mike: The way the figures seem to be working out it may be a hit in the
first year and some what of a drop in the second year.
Larry: Basically our Board figures there will not be a hit but that the figures
will remain pretty much constant. With the infusion or your 30 million in
property value the tax levy would possibly go down.
Estes: When I did it first we are taking this much of this township.
Lois: When I did the map, wasn't the total of values $39 million?
Mike: We had $39 at some of our earlier meetings. But I think that when
we presented it to the EKW Board it was $29,000,000.00
Estes: There was an error in computing the Wellington Township because
she figured wrong on the equalized portion being detached and
it was figured wrong by quite a whole bunch. It looks like we are taking a
big chunk but a quite a bit is already in the Brookwood school
Mike: Someone said to me this morning regarding the 5 miles and the 19
miles that there are kids in the EKW district that live closer to Sparta than
to Elroy.
Lois: Yes that is true. We are 19 miles from Elroy.
Estes: These people up here may be a bit closer to Kendall than Brookwood
but they are not closer than Elroy.
Mike: Mileage is important in that it should be so it makes it easier for
parents to interact with their children. In both academics and sports.
Lois: If you have a small child that gets sick and is down at the Elroy
School it is going to take time to get there.
Mike: Then after you get there you still may have to take them to
a doctor in Tomah or Sparta.
Mike: Larry, I think we would like to take part in your meeting but still
feel we might want to have one of our own in this district (N-O.) I think
we would like show them this is a real workable thing and let them see who
we are.
Estes: We should put up posters with all our meeting dates on and then
in real bold letter "REMEMBER TO VOTE YES ON NOVEMBER 2nd.
1999.
Lois: Where are they getting their money for radio adv.? Everyone is talking
about Nalani being on the radio.
Estes: I thought it was just an interview by a reporter at the meeting.
Lois: I heard them a couple of times. They would not run an interview over
and over would they?
Unknown Questionaire: Its possible, they usually run the news every hour on the
hour.
Bill: A BOG reporter from Tomah interviewed Nalani after the Meeting at
Wilton the other nite and they do have a number of news broadcast a day.
Mike: Well folks thanks for coming we will wrap it up now.
There was some discussion among N.O.W. members as to when to plan
the next meeting here at Norwalk. Details will be forthcoming. The
remaining 6 meeting have been posted on this WEB site.