May Update: County Newsletter
Happy May everyone,
I hope you all are doing well. I’m here to give my monthly update on the county board. We are now a little over a month into our new term, and I have a handful of updates about county board and committee meetings from the previous month.
The first human services committee convened on May 5th to review programs and priorities for new members of the committee. The recording is linked in the text and in the link section at the end for anyone interested in a comprehensive overview of all the departments that Kenosha County Human Services oversees. It’s amazing what they do, and there may even be resources that you don’t know about. Rebecca Dutter (currently nominated to be the next director of Kenosha County Human Services) does a run-down in less than 10 minutes, and it’s very impressive. At the end, the committee discusses priorities and what our meetings should focus on in the future. Some members of the committee are interested in looking at specific contracts to ensure efficiency of units. We also identified that we as a county need to be working proactively to collaborate with the city to create emergency shelter options for extreme weather events. This is an issue we have been pressed on by the community (thank you!!) and we are going to set this issue as a priority. For those who are unaware, Supporters of Shelter SOS has been working tirelessly to coordinate city and county units to make sure there are procedures in place to protect our unhoused residents when an extreme weather event occurs, and they have collected 1200 signatures in support of a plan that they have outlined. This is an incredible community effort, and I am humbled to be in a position to try to advocate for its implementation. I hope that the County Board can be an advocate for the plan moving forward.
The County Board meeting on May 5th was relatively uneventful, but the meeting on May 19th had a few items of note. County Executive Kerkman delivered the State of the County Address (queued up at the right part of the video at this link in the text). Some highlights from the address include:
Five new County Board Supervisors elected this term
Progress on the ceremonial courtroom
Progress on the new human services building
Highlighting individuals from various county departments and divisions and the work that they do
Focusing on challenges such as:
Tackling the Kemper shoreline
Energy utility sector ordinances
Kenosha County Housing Taskforce
Details on these items can be found in the recording and at this press release if you have any questions.
The meeting proceeded with a number of concerned citizen’s comments, mostly related to a Battery Storage System ordinance in Wheatland that many in the area are concerned about. I will spare the complete details (and you can see the recording if you’re interested), but here is the thrust: The County Board suspended the rules of the meeting on May 19th to push through an ordinance to maintain a moratorium on Battery Energy Storage Systems. The reason for the moratorium was to make sure that we do our due diligence to study the health risks, environmental risks, and safety protocols associated with installing such a system. The reason the ordinance needed to be pushed through quickly is because if it had gone the regular route through committee, the company with plans to build the system could have gotten licensing through before the ordinance reached the county board. It’s complicated, but the way I see it, we listened to the concerns of the community and acted accordingly.
The last bit of exciting news is that our board chair has nominated Stephanie Knezz (me!) to serve on the Kemper Center board. It has to go through committee and county board vote, and I will keep you posted on the progress. I am excited to be more involved in the operations of the Kemper Center, to be able to inform my constituents in District 2 about what is going on, and to be able to voice feedback to the board directly. I am hoping this will be a smooth transition and I will be able to give more thorough Kemper updates to you all soon.
Finally, I want to conclude with a link to some of the free events we have at our county parks this summer. I have provided a link in the link section below, and I hope everyone gets a chance to take a break and take advantage of the many resources our parks have to offer. Enjoy the beautiful weather, and I will see you in June.
Links:
Human Services (5/5): https://www.youtube.com/live/5q9sPAJ5Z9w?si=NkdQz7aQsToQfUMn
County Board (5/5): https://www.youtube.com/live/suxVfrSMIhQ?si=9dQT887Dm0RoOp3Z
County Board (5/19): https://www.youtube.com/live/VCDvBIKVxH4?si=Vne9mVSj76JBPisD
see 1:30 for the State of the County Address
State of the County Address Press Release (with full text link): https://www.kenoshacountywi.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/3565
Free parks events: https://www.kenoshacountywi.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/3568