Hello and thank you for being an informed voter.
I’m a mechanical engineer and active community member focused on creating solutions and building community. Fellow organizers and I co-founded the nonprofit Oshkosh Tool Library, a lending library of tools available to everyone in Winnebago County where I volunteer regularly and serve as the financial officer practicing radical transparency. I also work at Day by Day Shelter to support, empower, and advocate for guests and housing solutions.
My other community work includes fixing and promoting bicycles with the Community Bike Program and Wisconsin Bike Federation, partnering with Urban Ecology Oshkosh to educate about foraging invasive plants for food sovereignty and ecological reciprocity, fixing electronics at Repair Café, simplifying city ordinances to encourage native landscaping with the City of Oshkosh Sustainability Advisory Board, facilitating a safe 2024 North East Wisconsin Dragon Boat Race as race director, and more.
Based on my experience as an engineer, consolidating and repurposing buildings and improving insulation are the most cost effective methods of improving energy efficiency, but as stated in the 2025 Strategic Plan, we need a “comprehensive assessment of county buildings…” to be sure which solutions are best.
Renewable energy should be considered because of the potential to reduce overall costs, in select cases, as shown in the City of Oshkosh Energy Plan. Additionally, renewables like solar can provide resilient power to critical services during weather disasters.
Careful analysis can give us confidence which projects save the taxpayers the most in the long run. We can use capital improvement funds or borrow for projects with a high return on investment.
Affordability and accessibility are two of the most important issues facing residents.
Housing and food are often the largest portion of monthly budgets so the County Board should support and expand local solutions that reduce costs and increase community reliance like nonprofit housing, community gardens, and farmers markets.
Everyone needs to travel affordably and safely to have a thriving community and economy. Right now, we lack regular bus routes between Winnebago County population centers and safe pedestrian and biking infrastructure throughout. County Highway 76 in Oshkosh needs a sidewalk as I’ve seen multiple people walking, biking, and even riding a wheelchair on the road in 35 mph traffic. The county government needs to lead an effort with the municipalities to get this done before people get hurt. In District 11, we could also encourage native wildflowers and fruit trees along the Wiouwash Trail and expand trail systems to improve public health and outdoor recreation.
Our county needs are best understood by its residents. That is why I am in favor of a participatory budget model to promote our residents’ ideas, proposals, and values. At least part of this money should be allocated back to the residents of the county to democratically affect change in the community. Interested community members can meet and reach an agreement on how the funds should be spent.
The board of supervisors should take the role of facilitator of the people’s will. Allowing the people of Winnebago County to hold themselves accountable will foster community engagement and pride.
“The mission of Winnebago County is to economically and efficiently provide and manage delivery systems for diverse programs and services to meet basic human needs.”
Housing is undeniably a basic human need whose price is outpacing wages. Our county government can unlock real solutions by lowering square-footage requirements for homes and parking, lending unused county land to alternative housing pilots and programs, soliciting and removing barriers for building technologies that reduce material cost and improve energy efficiency like cob, rammed earth, and other local materials, and incentivizing the repair, maintenance, and better utilization of our existing buildings.
I’m already working at the Oshkosh Tool Library and with community partners to bring truly affordable housing solutions to our area and I’ll continue and expand this effort as your representative on the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors.
I served in the Wisconsin Army National Guard and the US Army Reserves for 33 years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. During that time, I deployed twice to Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and an Operations officer.
As an Operations officer I was responsible to create and run a number of different programs or missions. One of those responsibilities was to evaluate and train the Oshkosh based National Guard unit, the 1157th Transportation Company prior to their deployment to Afghanistan. The training and mentorship provided to the unit leadership which contributed to the safe return of all the Soldiers of that unit.
In my civilian occupation I worked Inside Sales for Walt Disney Home Entertainment promoting DVD and Blu-Ray sales.
I currently serve on the County Board, serving on the Veteran's Commission, Airport and Waste Management Committees.
Finally, I was a youth sports coach for football and girls basketball.
I am a strong advocate for solar energy. In fact, my wife and I have it for our house, and I have been very pleased with it so far.
As this relates to the county, we are entering a phase where there are a number of buildings that will need to be either replaced or renovated in the next few years. I would propose that moving forward we would install solar panels to all new construction. I would also add that, if possible, we should always try to assure that we have a south facing roof on each building in order to maximize sunlight absorption.
We should also be looking at geothermal opportunities for any new construction as well. I would not look to upgrade any existing buildings until we determine which ones we are going to continue to maintain or renovate.
In terms of funding these activities, the best way is to roll up these expenses into the new construction costs.
I am mostly concerned about the county Capital Improvement Plan. We have well over 100 buildings that belong to Winnebago County. Many of them are either in disrepair or have outlived their usefulness. An initial assessment was conducted with a number of proposals of what options we will need to look at for the future. All of the options provided are going to be very expensive. We need to make this issue a greater priority for this next session. In order to minimize taxpayer burden on this issue I think that we need to be prepared to sell off some of the buildings that no longer serve the purpose for which they were intended.
The second issue that I am concerned about is PFAS contamination. We have already identified that PFAS is present in a few areas in Winnebago County already. We need to begin the process of identifying just how much contamination these is. It is important to determine as soon as possible in order to expedite Federal funding requests for the clean up.
A resolution was passed that restricted the use of spirit funds to already existing county functions. However, that being stated I am aware that there is 1 non-profit organization that is requesting the funding that they were originally allocated but they had turned down. I certainly would support this request, but I believe that it would require an amendment to the current policy. Which I would also support.
Once that was done, my recommendation would be to hold a special session of the Spirit Fund committee to solicit any other requests. Which the committee and the board would have to approve.
Upon the completion of that effort, I believe that all remaining funds should go toward repairs that are required for our county buildings. It has been estimated that just the Administration building will require 1 million dollars for repairs. Using the funds for this purpose will help reduce the tax burden on residents of Winnebago County.
The county board has already approved the revolving loan program which provided the county executive and the staff to continue to develop this concept. I have already supported this resolution.
However, I do believe that there are some key tasks that must be done in order to guarantee the success of this program. First, I would strongly encourage the staff to reach out to each village, town or city in Winnebago county to determine what their interests are in terms of affordable housing. Do they feel that low income apartments, or smaller homes would meet the needs of their respective communities. It is also very important to determine if these communities are also willing to support these new developments with infrastructure as well. Will they commit to paving roads to support the new construction or is it possible to plug into already existing road and sewer systems.
This is something new that the county is going to try, which I believe can be successful.
