Waunakee officials host town hall, plan for future dates

Members of Waunakee’s three main governing bodies hosted an open-door town hall at the village’s public library during the afternoon of Saturday, July 20.

While resident turnout was slim for the first-time event, Dane County Board Supervisor David Boetcher, Village Trustee Robert McPherson and School Board Member Dawn Heinrichs used the opportunity to work through Waunakee’s future together.

The conversation between the triplet of representatives and the several of residents in attendance branched several topics: flooding in the village, school district funding, public transportation, housing and road improvements to name a few.

Residents who were there used the opportunity to pose questions and share concerns in an informal manner to peek behind the curtain of the village’s innerworkings.

The three representatives were happy to explain factors leading to current community conditions and bounced off of each other’s unique perspectives on each topic. Conversation throughout the two-hour meeting was productive, candid and good-natured.

The looming sentiment that resulted from the meeting was that residents and officials both agreed collaboration needed to increase between all levels of government.

“Over the years right now in Waunakee we haven’t seen the coordination between the three major impacts on our community. We have to start doing that if we’re really going to create a new model or style of how we do things, instead of how we’re doing it now,” Boetcher said.

McPherson and Heinrichs agreed with Boetcher’s sentiment at the meeting, especially when it comes to creating a future Waunakee that is in line with the desires and hopes of the community.

The small town hall was a first step towards achieving this system of collaboration that representatives and residents alluded to.

At the meeting’s conclusion the group brainstormed dates for the next iteration, perhaps later in August or at some point in September. Saturday’s town hall took place in the board room of the public library; the group hopes to use a larger space the next time around.

Heinrichs and McPherson also expressed a desire to bring in other fellow members of their boards if they were interested in future meetings.

Though the upcoming dates of these events for Waunakee have yet to become clear, residents can expect to hear about future town halls through various village and school district communication channels. along with the Waunakee Tribune.