March 24, 2026
VIROQUA, WIS. – On Sunday, March 22 residents gathered at the Viroqua VFW for a mayoral forum hosted by Threefold Driftless. The volunteer group organized the event to foster civic engagement and hear how candidates plan to shape the future of the city.
The spring election will determine who fills the open mayoral seat. The race is nonpartisan. The position became open when incumbent Mayor Justin Running chose not to seek reelection.
The two candidates vying for the position are Krista Browne and Roger Call. Browne is a local small business owner who works in interior design and emphasizes community engagement. Call is a retired plant operator who recently resigned as chairman of the Vernon County Republican Party to run for the nonpartisan municipal office.
Background and Qualifications The moderators asked candidates to describe their qualifications and then addressed the difference in how long they have lived in Viroqua by asking for the pros and cons of being newer to the community.
Call emphasized his 30 years living in the city and his desire to help the community continue to thrive. “I was raised in Vernon County but I also moved back in 1995 so I have lived here for the past 30 years,” said Call. “I can remember Viroqua, if you remember the main street at times we had blank storefronts. Hardly any businesses downtown. So I have seen Viroqua recover again from that. I am here to help encourage that. We have a business park with a lot of spaces for new business, housing development starting, and I just like to help Viroqua succeed in all those new developments”.
Browne addressed concerns about being newer to the area by focusing on a shared love for the community and her professional design experience. “I am Wisconsin born and raised, a wife, a mom of three,” said Browne. “I own a small business. I have a certification (in design) and care much more about the public safety and egress of spaces and the human use of spaces way over what I think about your curtains. I am not from here but my children will be from here. Anybody who wants to be here loves what we all love. I love that we have a little bit of everything. I love that we have a little bit for everyone. I want to make sure that everyone knows that they belong here. They are valued for their values”.
Community Cohesion Moderators noted the diverse community and asked the candidates how they would address tensions between newcomers and longtime residents and strengthen cohesiveness.
Call drew on his experience in business and utility management to emphasize communication and a willingness to compromise. “If you come to a meeting and you are not willing to listen we are not going to make any progress,” said Call. “Well then we have to define the problem, see what we have for solutions, agree on those solutions, implement them and then everyone has to support it at the end. If we have two groups that have different opinions and we want to reach a common solution we can. You just have to be willing to change, and be willing to meet with the other party, talk about it, and work it out”.
Browne focused on investing in shared public spaces to foster organic community building. “I wrote a thesis titled community based third places,” said Browne. “The places that we share between work and home have been, we have been losing them for decades. How do we add back social infrastructure like the libraries, the public schools, making sure everything is resource rich. So we have lively streets we have lively parks. We have places where people are meeting. That is how I want to approach this because I think that is going to develop the most healthy opportunities for us to know each other better, listening together, developing ideas and then deciding at round tables where there are not sides. It is us, and then we work together”.
Housing and Managing Growth The moderators asked how the candidates would manage the growth of the city while preserving its small town feel and how to address the need for affordable housing.
Call noted that housing spikes are not unique to the area and the city will have to adapt to projections that the population could double in ten years. “Viroqua is growing,” said Call. “I think you will see the projections we are supposed to double in 10 years. We are not going to have a lot of control over the new developments. I know there is a comprehensive plan that wants to look at mixing small homes with medium income homes with some larger homes. We are going to have to work on that and get that developed”.
To have more control Call suggested the city needs to purchase vacant land. “If you leave it up to the developers it will be just like the abbey divisions,” said Call. “It is all cookie cutter houses. You have no diversity there. If that is something we want to consider as a city we have to get control of those lots and design the housing before it is started. As a realtor I know we should have a right of first refusal on those”.
Browne agreed with gaining control over design but emphasized infill and creative use of existing properties. “I want to focus on creating a balanced inventory of safe affordable available housing where you can stay here,” said Browne. “If you are from here you can move back here. If you grew up here you can live here and root your family into the home that you fit in. I want us to focus on making a really healthy tapestry of cities where we do not sprawl and eat the farmland that we all cherish and respect. We already have an appetite for interesting housing and dwelling and so how can we make ordinances right. How do we guide people to make the home that they want because they want to do this project and we find the way that we want to do it”.
Short Term Rentals The candidates were asked if they favor an ordinance that would limit the number of short term rentals in the city.
Call expressed opposition to an ordinance limiting rentals because he feared it would create a black market of uninspected units. Drawing on his own experience owning rental cabins. “I had two rental cabins in Coon Valley,” said Call. “If you did not have it inspected by the county, I knew of several rental cabins that were not inspected. They were just under the table. Those were not inspected. I think we will have the same issue in Viroqua. If we start to try to limit Airbnbs we will just have rental units short-term, rental units that are not inspected. I would like to stop that from happening”.
Browne echoed the concern about uninspected units but argued for stricter boundaries and higher licensing fees for owners who do not live on the property. “I am for having an ordinance on accessory dwelling units,” said Browne. “I believe that we have a large number of them in the city already and we need to put better boundaries on it so that we have housing for people who do live here. If you want to play here and have seven Airbnbs and you are not going to live in it as your primary residence then I think that your licensing fee should be a lot higher to a degree where it is not a business model you want to run. If you clean them you should be paid fair not just like great I am going to skim off the top. We have to do better as neighbors”.
Economic Development and Local Business Moderators asked what types of businesses the candidates would prioritize bringing to the area and how they would support locally owned shops.
Both candidates enthusiastically agreed on prioritizing local mom and pop shops over national franchises. Call said he prefers unique local businesses and wants to support them through direct communication. “The short answer is, it is management by walking around,” said Call. “I do not want Viroqua to be another cookie cutter city going down Main Street and seeing all these same franchises. I would rather see a mom and pop shop. You can always tell a good place because it is noon and the parking lot is full. At the same time we should have somebody from the Chamber of Commerce, the mayor, whoever checking on everything and just ask is everything going like expected? Could we improve something?”
Browne strongly agreed and promised to support local entrepreneurs. “I want to make sure that the companies, businesses people working here are contributing to how we value living what we value in Viroqua,” said Browne. “If we try to only reel in a really big fish with a lot of money and that is our goal ,we could attract and tip ourselves to become something that we never were and we do not want. I commit to helping you do what you want to do here. I am not concerned about telling people with money and brands that sorry that is not us. I am going to make sure that I am listening to each one of you and giving you the places to show up to tell me what you think before it is a sign on the highway”.
Civic Engagement and Communication The hosts noted that many residents feel disconnected from city decisions and asked for ideas to keep the community informed.
Call pointed to existing public meetings and boards as the primary way to get involved and noted the constraints of state laws. “There is public notice of the city council meetings,” said Call. “There is also a dozen different boards and commissions and you can volunteer to get on these boards. Send your letter of interest to the mayor and the city council. You can get involved that way. We also have Wisconsin has open meeting law restrictions, so we just cannot have three people on the same committee show up at a meeting and discuss a topic because then you are in violation of the open meeting law. When you see a agenda posted but then not the minutes it is because they have to approve the minutes the next month”.
Browne proposed creating new avenues for involvement such as a youth council and a building committee while improving basic communication. “I want to make sure that our committees and the types of committees and what we are actually doing and wanting match,” said Browne. “So I would like to see us adding committees something like a care committee and a resilience committee and a building committee. I also want to see us add a youth council where there are representatives in the youth demographic from every ward just like there are for city council because right now we are not doing enough for them, and we need to listen better to them. So having meetings posted sooner not the day before making sure that we are getting meeting minutes out so that you understood what happened last night”.
Public Infrastructure and Fiscal Health The moderators asked if the candidates had concerns about the fiscal health of the city and if there were any infrastructure projects they would have done differently.
Browne noted she would have approached recent major projects with more public input. “I am grateful that we spent that money to do those things and I would have done them differently more mindfully and stretching it in different ways,” said Browne. “I think having a more concrete design program for something like the fire station where we know exactly why we have. The number of rooms. I want you to know every decision we are making because when a tax bill goes up I want you to know why. I do not want you to wonder why because then you are going to call me and you are going to be mad. And that means you care. I am also really good at value engineering. That is the fancy way of saying this project is over budget we’ve got to cut the money”.
Call stated he would focus on preventative maintenance to avoid tax spikes but would not second guess previous city councils. “With my background in the utility industry I was big on preventive maintenance techniques,” said Call. “I just want to make sure that we are not delaying road repairs or purchases of new trucks or whatever that should be purchased this year and we delayed them because those will lead to a tax spike down the road. Taxes are hard to pay, but as long as they stay somewhat even or just increase slightly we could all live with them. I am not going to second guess the city council. I think they did everything with the information they had at the time”.
Police and Fire Services The candidates were asked to assess the public safety programming and performance of the local fire and police departments.
Call noted that recent traffic pattern changes on Main Street have successfully reduced rear end collisions. He also pointed to the fire commission as a resource for transparency and accountability. “I have heard the chief talk about on Main Street with all the traffic changes so far the number of rear end accidents, people having collisions running into cars has really been reduced since a lot of these changes have been made,” said Call. “Fire commission, yes they keep a log book on all the call outs they have. So a person can go back and see what all the calls have been. If it was an ambulance, EMT run or fire run or what exactly happened”.
Browne emphasized her existing working relationships with both the fire and police chiefs and stressed the importance of building community trust in emergency responders before crises happen. “That will that is the mayor’s job, they oversee police and fire,” said Browne. “I know both our fire chief and our police chief and I have a good working relationship with each of them. When we call 911 here they’re coming. They want to help, or they wouldn’t do this job. And the majority, the majority, except our fire chief, they’re volunteers. They care that much to help, and you’re going to be in your most vulnerable position when you call for it. So how do we bridge it now? Before it’s… problems, right? When it’s not a problem. That’s my job.”
Historic Preservation An audience member asked the candidates about the role of the historic preservation commission and whether they had read the local ordinance regarding historic buildings. The topic also prompted a question from another resident about balancing preservation efforts with the private property rights of a family who recently lost an iconic historic home to a fire.
Call admitted he had not read the ordinance but supported the commission having a role in decisions about remodeling or demolishing older buildings. “I believe you take an inventory of the buildings in Viroqua and then declare which ones are historic landmarks and then before that owner can remodel or change that building they have to get permission from this historical preservation group,” said Call. “No, I have not read the ordinance. I would hope that they are overlooking, especially if something is being remodeled or torn down”.
Browne stated she had read the ordinance and frequently attends the commission meetings. She expressed a desire to integrate their input more broadly across city decisions and utilize available grant funding. “I have gone to a lot of their meetings and I know what they are working on and yes, I have read the ordinance on it and I know that our downtown is a historic downtown,” said Browne. “There is grant funding for this. So if you have a building that is on the registry you can get certain grants. You also can get tax credits. This is important to me because I understand the true costs and sometimes the cost of making something that is already existing into the next thing that is going to cost more upfront, but it is going to cost less in externalities of what is going to our already stressed out landfill.”
High Voltage Transmission Line An audience member asked if the candidates would use their influence to help prevent the proposed 765 kilovolt transmission line from coming through the county.
Both candidates expressed opposition to the project but with varying degrees of intensity. Call acknowledged the need to move power but said he would oppose the line crossing his property. “I work for Dairyland Power, the generation division not the transmission division, and if I had farmland or a house in the country, yes I would be, I am opposed,” said Call. “I would be even more opposed if I had it crossing my property. You have to get the power transmitted somehow whether it is a coal train a pipeline a transmission line. If you need to get power from A to B you need those transmission lines. But I think that we could have local generation sources near the people that have to use it and not depend on the bigger transmission lines moving that power”.
Browne took a firmer stance and promised to fight the project on multiple fronts. “As a mayor it is my job to represent what you want here and I know that from what I have been listening to this is not desired,” said Browne. “I have already been advocating everywhere I can. This is a regional issue. This is a water issue. This is a generational issue. This is a land use issue. And I am really sad and mad over the fact that this power is coming through here. It is not coming to us. We work hard to not use more than we need. We do not need more power. If that comes I will fight just so you know I will not let us lose our water and our geology and what we care about to companies who just want the resource and do not know who we are”.
Closing Statements In their closing remarks both candidates answered brief final audience questions before summarizing their approach to the office.
Browne addressed final questions from the audience regarding religion and housing before sharing her vision for leadership. “I do not like to should on people so if Jesus Christ is important to you and is it and you are not getting what you need here or you are unsafe or you need something different about it, I am a safe person,” said Browne. “I was raised Catholic, separation of church and state. I am not going to make decisions based on things that are going to make you feel like you are less than. Let us talk about reincarnation and karma later. So many people want to live here. Did you know that Viroqua was so magnetic right now. But yes you are right, how do we just continue to make it a great place to live? We are working on accessory dwelling unit ordinances, which means we are figuring out what are the boundaries and expectations for adding another dwelling onto your property. If that is something that you want to do, and how do we want to infill the lots and parcels in a neighborly way that works better for all of us because people want to move here and we have an appetite for living in creative types of housing. Thank you for coming. Thank you for your questions. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for opening your doors when I knock and when Roger knocks because we want to represent you, and I think we both do. and I do not think this made it any easier to decide who you are voting for. And I am okay with that because I want us to remember that we have hope in leadership and then we have hope in what is happening in the places we can control, and we do not have to get so off track with things we cannot control. And I am not going to get off track with things I cannot control. I am going to show up and do what I can for my neighbors where I can. So thank you for coming. Let us build staying power”.
Call opted to bypass the religious topics and quickly highlighted his diverse background as an asset for the position. “I believe in separation of powers so no I am not going to tackle the religion ones,” said Call. “I do not know if you want everybody moving to Viroqua because it is such a great place to live. We are having a hard enough time right now with housing and yes additional dwelling units or tiny houses. I like the term additional dwelling unit better than tiny house but they are looking at it as Krista said. And also I would like to thank everyone for coming. A lot of most of you stuck it out. There is a few empty chairs but most of you stuck it out. Thank you very much. I certainly would like to be your next mayor. I will repeat, some of the things I have experienced throughout my life as far as working with different groups, the real estate, learning to be a better communicator, I think would all help me be a better Mayor if I was elected. So thank you to Threefold for putting this together. Quite honestly it is better than I thought it would have been”.
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