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Incumbent, former member earn Delavan City Council seats

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Mary O'Connor

DELAVAN — An incumbent beat a former council member in the city of Delavan’s District 1.

And one former council member beat another in a write-in campaign in District 3.

Incumbent Mary O’Connor, 518 N. Terrace St., beat John Finley, 127 S. Terrace St., in District 1. O’Connor has been on the council since 2009.

O’Connor looks forward to working with the city’s newly hired administrator, Denise Pieroni. She also hopes to keep her seat on the public works and library committees. O’Connor has said she wants to improve communications between the library and the city council.

Now that she has one term under her belt, O’Connor said she plans to hold listening sessions for her constituents.

“I’d like to get more of a feel of what my constituents want for the city so that I can speak for them,” O’Connor said. “I didn’t do a lot of that the last two years. I’d like to do more of those.”

In District 3, City Clerk Sue Kitzman hand-counted 427 write-in ballots. Ryan Schroeder and Will Kuhkaba ran to replace former council member Ron Siedelmann, a longtime council member who was running unopposed when he died in February.

Schroeder, 510 S. Seventh St., who served on the council between 1999 and 2009, easily beat Kuhkaba, who served on the council from 1987 to 1997.

Schroeder said he thinks the city’s voters believe they can connect with him and that he will make nonpartisan decisions.

Kuhkaba had said Schroeder would not be nonpartisan because Schroeder is the chief of staff for state Rep. Josh Zepnick, a Milwaukee Democrat.

Schroeder said his district is in a business-intensive part of the city. In addition to getting things settled at Lake Lawn Resort, Schroeder wants to work to fill up the city’s industrial park and bring more jobs to Delavan.

“I don’t care who I have to work with,” Schroeder said. “I’ll work with whoever’s willing to work with me because I know we need to get the job done.”