Heather Gergen
for Pewaukee Village Board
PLATFORM
"I served on the Village Board from May 2013-April 2022. During that time, my goals remained the same—to serve and contribute to the community. Village trustee is a non-partisan office and I have always found it to be my responsibility to represent all of its citizens equally. I have a history of providing innovative solutions to the village's obstacles. I don’t accept the answer 'Because that’s the way it's always been done.' "
LIST OF ISSUES
Strategic Plan
One of the most effective projects that I was involved with as a part of the Village Board was as a member of the team that developed the village’s strategic plan which was based upon feedback from our residents in 2019.
The plan helped to identify the biggest issues facing the Village in a variety of categories so that we could focus our efforts on solving them. Since that time, the board has been able to make incredible progress toward reaching the goals set forth in the plan.
It is time to update the plan again since many of the goals have been attained. I want to continue on the path to improving the quality of life in the village for citizens while achieving growth in a sustainable manner. The Strategic Plan can be found on the Village of Pewaukee's website.
Redevelopment
The village is almost completely built out so we need to focus on redevelopment.
We are trying to attract more businesses using a variety of initiatives, updates to the comprehensive land use plan and through our partnership with the Waukesha Center for Growth. By creating conditions to make redevelopment attractive to property owners and developers, we’ve already made progress in several areas targeted within the strategic plan including the old St. Mary’s property and the lakefront. I would like to see us focus on a possible river walk, updating the “downtown triangle” and the River Hills area in the future.
The Village of Pewaukee has one the highest number of affordable housing units in Waukesha County. Currently, 43% of all housing units are renter-occupied, so we are looking to increase the number of single-family housing units instead.
Shared Services with the City
I have experience working with different parts of our government including our joint services with the City of Pewaukee.
We have a few contracts with the City of Pewaukee that are coming up for renewal including our library and fire and rescue agreements. I think it is important to work together to find solutions to benefit both communities.
Infrastructure
We need to continue to replace and maintain our infrastructure. Due to budgeting constraints over the years, we’ve had to put off updates and maintenance for far too long and have been playing catch-up by repairing and replacing our infrastructure.
Unfortunately, this is all coming at a time when inflation is continuing to rise.
Roads, government buildings and equipment was falling apart thus becoming a liability. Before I left the office, we approved the construction of a new DPW building to replace the structure. We were able to secure an incredibly low-interest rate on our loan in the nick of time before rates increased.
Budgeting
My voting record shows that I believe strongly in fiscal responsibility. Some might even say that I am a bit too conservative with spending.
However, I take pride in the fact that during my time in office, the Village was able to pay off some long-term debts and raise its bond rating. The board and staff have come up with some creative solutions to pinch pennies over the years, but some of the same issues keep reoccurring at budgeting time.
The entire time that I was on the Village Board we struggled with the constraints of levy limits. Levy limits are determined by the percentage increase in equalized value from net new construction. Since the village is almost completely built out, we don't have many places left to build new construction. So, we have to focus on redevelopment. With rising costs, we have had to come up with creative ways to budget within our means. This becomes a problem when the costs of products and services continue to increase just like in our household budgeting, but there is no way to increase the amount of money coming into the Village coffers.
Secondly, dark store legislation has wreaked havoc on the Village's ability to collect taxes on big businesses. Due to tax loopholes in the state law, many major retail stores such as Walmart, Menards and Walgreens are finding ways to reduce their property tax payments and are shifting the tax burden onto residents of the village. The Village has wasted thousands on fighting these battles.
The village has a comprehensive safety infrastructure which includes police and fire and rescue. The most popular village resources are both free and accessible to all area residents-the beach, our parks and our library. Upkeep of all of these services continues to increase. Finding solutions to pay for it all will take innovative ideas.