ANTIGO -- Several county residents have registered in recent weeks as official write-in candidates for county board seats, including two that are currently occupied.
Cassidy Quig and Abby Mattek registered as official write-in candidates in Districts 5 and 11, respectively, and Sherry Piraino, Sandra Fischer, and Brian Zaverousky registered as write-ins for Districts 1, 2, and 3, respectively, all seats that will have no candidates on the ballot at all.
Quig will face incumbent Carol Bardo for Antigo’s District 5, while Mattek will square off with Andy Bauknecht for District 11 in the Town of Rolling.
The Antigo Journal reached out to the four candidates in these contested races about their backgrounds and ideas for the board.
Cassidy Quig - District 5 Write-in
An Antigo resident since she was four years old, Quig works as a clerk at the Antigo Public Library, before which she spent two years as a marketing coordinator for a casino/hotel and for a marketing agency, and before that six years at CoVantage Credit Union, an experience which she said helped her learn about the town through customers. She said the recent public disagreements regarding the library’s budget and board members were one of many factors that led her to register as a write-in.
“We think that someone else is always going to do it, especially younger adults, but at some point, that someone else has to be you. A new generation of leaders will need to come up at some point,” Quig said of running for the county board. “I think just hearing from others that maybe things weren’t being addressed in a fair way based on facts sometimes - and reading through some of the minutes, I think they might not have been - and just getting some more diversity in the opinions on the board influenced me to run.”
Quig said she believes the library - and other community gathering spaces - ought to be supported strongly by the board.
“There aren’t a lot of things to do here sometimes, especially when you have younger kids. I see it every day that I work at the library that it’s a big meeting place and a community place for people of all ages,” Quig said. “When thinking about ways to make it a more family-friendly place for kids to grow up in, families staying in places that are affordable and safe or educational is important. The library is one of the few things we have like that now, and I think I’d like to see more opportunity for that in other places.”
Quig said that if elected, she would hopefully serve on committees involving social services and public property to help add more family-friendly places to the community.
“I think I would just want to focus more on the issues that are actually facing our community and not things that people are being told are affecting the community and the country as a whole,” she said. “We have a lot of young families that we want to keep here and a lot of kids that we want to stay here and become those young families and then those residents later on. I think that we could be doing a lot more to make that happen focusing on things like child care, not just places to shop downtown, but making things more walkable, safer, and nicer to look at. We’ve done a really good job of that in some parts but I think it could go a lot further, and especially in District 5 I think there are a lot of areas that could be improved there.”
Carol Bardo - District 5 Incumbent
Originally from Indiana, Bardo has lived in Antigo for the past 35 years and is a retired occupational therapist. Bardo won District 5 as a write-in two years ago. She said her two years on the board have given her an appreciation for all that county workers do, as well as reinforced in her an attitude of fiscal responsibility.
“For me, I think a lot of people do not realize the United States of America is not a democracy - it is a constitutional republic. We elect representatives. And so for me, when I am making a decision and taking a vote, I try to always remember that I’m representing my taxpayers, and we have to be very responsible with their money. That is always in the back of my mind, ‘Are we being responsible with taxpayers’ money?’ It’s wonderful to just spend, spend, spend, but that’s not responsible,” Bardo said.
Bardo serves on the Social Services and Highway and Airport Committee, and recently was appointed to the library board. Bardo said her father raised her to not “do things blindly,” a quality which she suggested has already served the county well.
“There was a proposal for us to get involved in carbon credits that would have given us a pile of money,” Bardo said. “But in doing so, we basically relinquished the control of all of our forests for maybe 30 years. It was like, ‘Wait a minute, how is this really impacting the environment?’ What it basically was was big corporations who polluted the air would buy our carbon credits so that on paper they would look like they were really being good, while really, they were still pushing out the same garbage in our atmosphere. To me, that’s kind of hypocritical. But I also thought, ‘It’s not only that, but I would be basically relinquishing control of our county for years to come.’ So I could not agree with that and it was voted down.”
Bardo said the current school board aligned with the district’s administration is committed to the academic achievement of our children to help make Antigo an destination community.
“I care about my community. I want my children and my grandchildren to have a safe, good place to live,” Bardo said. “The people coming to this community, if they have families and they do not see this school district being vibrant and children learning, they won’t stay. I can tell you factually that three years ago, 25 percent of our seniors didn’t have adequate credits to graduate. That’s unacceptable. I sat in school board meetings and heard a principal say, ‘Well, we have poor kids and they just can’t do anything.’ That’s nonsense. I have spent a good chunk of my career working with generational poverty. I don’t think that’s a viable excuse: people with poverty can learn. So to me, you can’t separate the school from the city and from the county. We need to all work together, because we want the community to grow together.”
Abby Mattek - District 11 Write-in
For the previous two years, Mattek has been the Antigo School District’s Library Media Specialist, a position that entails managing the libraries and instructional technology curriculum at all five of the district’s schools. For the previous 18 years, she taught Spanish at the high school.
Mattek, who has lived in the Antigo area all but six years of her life, said both roles have prepared her to serve on the county board.
“A lot of people don’t realize just how our Hispanic population is growing. We finally have enough students in our school to have an English Language Learner teacher hopefully next year. So getting those families involved in different programs and just knowing they have a voice, knowing they have somebody they can speak to, I think is beneficial,” said Mattek, adding that despite her name not appearing on the actual ballot, a good deal of county voters are likely familiar with her, given that she has now taught many of their children. “I feel like I have taught most people’s kids in this county in Spanish or have former students that know I’m passionate about different cultures and different people. I didn’t just teach Spanish - I taught a lot of world global issues. So I think anybody that knows me knows that I can do this job and do it fairly.”
Mattek, who has served two years as the school’s representative on the library board, said observing recent disputes involving it contributed to her getting more involved in order to help lead compromise.
“I learned a lot about just how board meetings work in general and the things that need to be talked about and solutions for things. That led to going to some county board meetings and realizing that I feel that more voices need to be heard and I want to be one of them. Knowing that a lot of the people are running unopposed or that there isn’t even a candidate, I feel like the representatives have no challenge, and that’s just not the way that a democracy is supposed to work,” Mattek said. “The public library, the city, and the county all need to work together and have a third of equal say and listen to each other’s points of view instead of attacking and bringing social media and scare tactics into it.”
Like Quig, Mattek said she also hopes to expand the county’s offerings for families and children.
“Raising my boys here, who are actively involved in numerous sports programs, has given me firsthand insight into the importance of community involvement and support,” she said. “I have volunteered my time and resources to support these programs because I believe in the positive impact they have on our youth and the broader community. Above all, my love for this county and my decision to return here to raise my family drives my desire to serve on the county board.”
Andy Bauknecht - District 11 Incumbent
Bauknecht was born and raised in Antigo and replaced Jim Schulz in District 11 after he resigned from the seat for personal reasons approximately a year ago. Bauknecht works at his church in a variety of capacities and as a real estate agent, jobs through which he said he has met a variety of people in his district.
“Being a realtor hones negotiation, communication, and problem-solving skills, vital in governance,” Bauknecht said. “My work with the church cultivates empathy, community engagement, and moral grounding, crucial for public service. Both roles entail understanding diverse perspectives and mediating conflicts, equipping individuals with the tools needed to navigate political leadership effectively.”
Bauknecht said his limited time on the board, as well as his time serving on the Health and Veterans and Social Services committees, has involved a learning curve.
“It’s been just a tremendous opportunity to really see what our county does at a deeper level,” he said. “The employees we have are just amazing. There are just a lot of great people. There’s a lot of tough challenges that they have to face and deal with, but it was definitely beyond my expectations. I’m looking forward to having an opportunity to be involved in the policy portion of it and supporting them to do their jobs. There’s some long term employees there now, so I’m really looking forward to helping firm up the policies and procedures so that they can do their jobs effectively and have a good transition to whoever is going to be taking over these vital roles in the future.”
Bauknecht listed representing his constituents in Rolling in a fiscally responsible way as his top priority, which he said was the original reason he agreed to step into the position a year ago.
“The biggest thing is I really want to serve my neighbors. I believe in loving God and my neighbors, and the way that I choose to do that is through service,” Bauknecht said. “So I enjoy being active in the community through volunteer work - Meals on Wheels, the food pantry. I attend all of the town meetings so I know what’s going on. I’m a poll worker. I host DNR safety classes. It’s just so that I can help serve the community in any aspect that I can. So this just seemed like a good fit for that.”
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