WESTBY, Wis. – One of the contested races locally on the April 1 ballot is the race for the City of Westby Mayor. Danny Helgerson has been the Mayor in Westby since 2015 and up until now has not faced another candidate. That changed this year, but the person running against him, Westby businessman Garrick Olerud is running as a write-in candidate. Which means Westby voters will not see his name on the ballot. Anyone wanting to cast their vote for Oldrud will need to write his name on the ballot.
Olerud was not intending to run but had a change of heart after the deadline to sign papers to declare as a candidate, and has mounted a write-in campaign. Olerud has tried to overcome his name not being on the ballot by populating the city with his campaign signs, knocking on doors, and utilizing Facebook to get his message out using video posts.
We sat down with both candidates and talked about their ideas, how they are alike and how they are different.
Helgerson listed his accomplishments over the last ten years including the construction of the Westby Business Park that has attracted numerous businesses and created jobs, the Main Street renovation, park improvements (including the construction of a dog park), outdoor pool improvements and the attraction of a housing project that will bring 17 or 18 senior duplexes to the city. Helergson also recently became president of the Wisconsin League of Municipalities.
Olerud stressed his experience serving on the County Board of Supervisors and as a small business owner. Olerud said between his Westby and Hillsboro real estate offices, and The Daily Brew coffee house, he supervises about 50 employees. Olerud said he would like to see the city become more transparent by recording or broadcasting city meetings and becoming more active on social media so residents have more information about what the city is doing. Olerud said he would also like to see more committees to tackle specific issues.
Helgerson said he is not in favor of broadcasting meetings and feels the city meetings are open to the public and anyone can attend. He said he would like to see how recorded meetings go for the County Board of Supervisors and the Viroqua City Council who are both recording their meetings not. And Helgerson said the council did utilize more committees in the past, but they found the committees were usually composed of mostly council members and result was that issues often took longer to resolve because they ended up discussing them twice.
Both men said they are in favor of continuing the city garbage collection service and are not in favor of contracting the service out to a private hauler. And both men said the city will need to focus on developing more housing, although their approaches to that issue may differ.
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