CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Hold onto your ears. I’m about to compliment Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg.
The combined Independence Day fireworks show, organized by her office, was a success. I’d even speculated during these commentaries that Wausau’s neighbors might be reluctant to give tens of thousands of dollars to Wausau for a fireworks display that was going to happen anyway that would be visible to their residents if they paid or not.
Frankly there’s been very little municipal cooperation between Wausau and surrounding communities. The last big effort came under Mayor Jim Tipple. Weston had just purchased a new ladder truck for their fire department. But many of their volunteers didn’t have the specialized training to operate it. Wausau really needed a second ladder truck. So the agreement called for Weston’s ladder truck to be housed in Wausau. Wausau firefighters would be dispatched to Weston when their equipment was needed there. It was an entirely sensible arrangement. But many Weston residents howled. ‘Why is something that we paid for kept and used out-of-town?’ When the agreement expired, it wasn’t renewed.
There are many areas for municipal cooperation that aren’t fully taken advantage of. The most successful partnership is the Everest Metro Police Department, a combined law enforcement effort of Schofield and the Town and Village of Weston. All of those communities have a better law enforcement arrangement than they would have on their own.
Wausau is hard to partner with. It’s so much bigger than the municipalities around it. The politics of the current mayor are far more progressive than anything nearby. Yet municipal sharing is good public policy and can save taxpayers money. The recent incorporation of Rib Mountain could open new possibilities. Let’s see if there are any leaders in the area who can take advantage of them.
Chris Conley
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