Last Updated: May 2, 2012
Preservation through consolidation is what David Combs said Cottage Grove residents will need to understand in order to believe a merged Cottage Grove is the best choice.
The Verona Town Chairman, speaking at the August 22 meeting of the Cottage Grove Merger Study Committee, emphasized the importance of a “long-term vision” while moving forward with the consolidation process and doing everything possible including going door-to-door to educate residents.
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| Engaging people is what Verona Town Chairman David Combs said was the big challenge and ultimate barrier at the ballot box. |
“You need to say, ‘what am I trying to preserve here,’” said Combs who went through what was ultimately a failed consolidation attempt of the town and the city of Verona. “We were trying to preserve the Verona community. I think if you present a vision that way and what key parts that entails, I think that will get people more interested.”
Engaging people is what Combs said was the big challenge and ultimate barrier at the ballot box. A majority of Verona town residents decided to vote against merging when they saw that taxes on a $250,000 home in the town would increase $317. That increase, he said would have been largely caused by the loss of Dane County Sheriff police protection which would be dropped after the merger, requiring Verona to hire two to three officers to cover the town.
Fortunately the case is different for Cottage Grove, explained Merger Committee member and Village Trustee Micah Zielke who said they already have shared police force, among other joint Town-Village services.
But for Verona the downside was too steep and despite all the efforts at getting the word out, Combs said things did not work out the way he hoped. “I wish I would have had more time to go door-to-door. I talked to as many people as I could. We did hold public hearings. And as we got closer we had great involvement.”
Citizen committees were formed during this time to look at how consolidation would affect various aspects of a newly merged community. “That was amazing to watch the interaction,” said Combs. While there was plenty of support for the initiative, he said opposition to the merger also existed. A Verona Town board member who was against the plan was adamant in his stance and Combs said he was unable to convince him that merging was a good idea. The board member, he said, “when it came to crunch time actively went out and campaigned against us.”
The entire consolidation project from inception to the failed referendum on April 1, 2008 took about three and a half years. If Combs had it to do again, he said a shorter time frame would have worked better. Emphasizing the labor intensive nature of the process, he advised Cottage Grove merger committee members to be sure they were committed to the project before deciding to move forward.
That commitment would need to embraced first by Town residents, said Committee member and Village resident Mark Hepfinger. He explained burdens to be had from the merger would fall on the Town in the form of higher taxes, therefore, they are the ones who need to first accept the plan before going further. “It seems like the first question to have answered is do the people in the Town think it’s worth the increase in taxes it’s going to involve and lifestyle changes it’s going to involve to get to a referendum.”
Zielke, responding the Hepfinger’s statement, said the issues needed to be presented in more of a broad sense so all aspects are heard and understood. Public hearings, he said, will play a part in doing this by getting the pulse of the people.
Zielke also clarified earlier in the meeting that there was a significant difference in the tax levy disparity that the Veronas faced in 2008 and what the Cottage Groves face today. With about a 50 cent per $1,000 difference in its tax levies, Zielke said a $250,000 home in the Town would see about a $125 increase in their property taxes, a little more one-third what Verona town residents would have experienced.
While their tax divide differed, Committee Member and Town Supervisor Mike DuPlayee said the reasons for the Veronas’ and Cottage Groves’ consolidation interests were quite similar. "Loss of tax base, loss of tax dollars, how do we keep our roads repaired...these are the same issues that the town of Cottage Grove is facing." Like Verona, Cottage Grove is witnessing land loss through annexation and as a result a decreasing tax base…the fear of a sprawling Madison knocks on the doors of both communities.
Keeping the Cottage Groves intact, especially on the city of Madison side is what Committee Member and Village resident Don Brinkmeier said was at the core of what the merger is about, stressing the need to stave off the city’s eastward advancement. “We don’t have to drive very far to see the results of their planning strategies. And they’re not good. They are going to continue encroaching.”
A strong and independent local governing body could not only fend off Madison and other land-hungry neighbors but as Combs said it would also have kept Dane County from deciding what was best for Verona. ”I think the real strengths is the whole idea that local government, without much influence from Dane County’s comprehensive plan, is better. Dane County’s comp plan as a whole has to serve the entire county. The town of Verona from our perspective is not a typical rural area and our needs are far different. We know that development is going to happen but having our own comp plan we can make decisions at our level.”
But even with new strength being realized through merger, Combs and Cottage Grove committee members agreed there would still be power struggles to manage within a newly joined community. Differing urban and rural interests would need evenhanded consideration.
When it came close to referendum time in Verona in 2008, Combs said he was amazed how many people in his town became nervous about how burning and hunting rights would be affected by consolidation. Zielke said these were issues they discussed early on by the Cottage Grove merger study group and they all agreed that everything would be negotiable when it came to these types of issues.
Many of these interests are held by Town residents, which is why DuPlayee said a rural affairs committee would play a big part in a merged Cottage Grove. With a disproportionate number of citizens living in the urban areas, concerns needed addressing over the potential of rural resident interests going unheard. “Maintaining the rural makeup is vital,” said Combs, adding that they had a plan in place to develop a rural affairs committee that would hear all land use issues before being decided on by a board. “We really felt strongly that since we were going to try to maintain farmland that there ought to be a committee,” Combs said. Cottage Grove Merger Study Committee members have discussed at past meetings forming a rural affairs committee similar to the one Combs described.