Marquette County Corporate Counsel Ben Bult, right, administers the oath of office to Peter Steuck, Town of Montello farmer, who was appointed to the Marquette County Board with a unanimous vote to replace Howard Zellmer who passed away June 7. Steuck represents District 7, which covers the Town of Shields and Ward 1 of the Town of Montello. (Photo by Kathleen McGwin)

 

Steuck appointed to replace Howard Zellmer

 

By Kathleen McGwin
Peter Steuck, Town of Montello farmer, was appointed to the Marquette County Board with a unanimous vote after being nominated by Paul Wade, County Board Chair, to replace Howard Zellmer who passed away June 7. Zellmer had been Chair for 14 years. Steuck will serve the remainder of Zellmer’s term which runs until April of 2014. Steuck represents District 7 which covers the Town of Shields and Ward 1 of the Town of Montello.

The newly hired Veterans Service Officer (VSO) was introduced to the Board by outgoing VSO Richard Haase. Haase left the Marquette County position to take the VSO position in Columbia County where he lives. Haase helped screen, interview, and recommend the new officer. He said in an email after the meeting, “Don Wilken, MMCM, USN (retired) of Oxford, Wisconsin, has been selected as the new Marquette CVSO. His first day on the job will be July 30th. He served 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy; of those, 11.5 were spent at sea below the waves as a Nuclear Power Plant Supervisor. His last duty assignment was the USS Miami (SSN 755). He has been awarded four Navy ‘E’ Ribbons.”

Heather Acker of Baker Tilly, Virchow Krause, LLP, the auditing and accounting firm hired by the county to audit their financials, gave a report to the county board and said that the audit they completed came with the highest opinion they can give. She also said the county made good progress on increasing the fund balance which was a goal from the previous year.

The board passed resolution #35-2012 that gave a 2% raise to all non-represented and non-elected employees that will cost the county approximately $8600 a month. The raise will be retroactive to June 1 of 2012. The resolution reads, in part, “Whereas, for the fiscal year 2012 many of our unions did not recertify leaving most of our general employees unrepresented and whereas, Marquette County did not put any raises for non-represented employees in the 2012 budget and whereas, at the end of the fiscal year, 2011, county departments being fiscally responsible returned approximately $600,000 to the general fund raising the percentage of unassigned funds from the 12% of total general fund expenditures for 2010 to 17.6% for 2011, whereas the county wants to show its appreciation to all employees, Department Heads and staff for being fiscally responsible with the County’s funds…”