Five hopefuls have eyes on vacant town board seat

Five people have expressed interest in filling the vacant Town of Port Washington supervisory seat.

They are:

• Terry Anewenter of 3685 Hwy. KK, a former Plan Commission member and farm owner who has sought election to the Town Board over the past seven years;

• John Sampont of 2354 Willow Rd., a former maintenance technician at Tecumseh and New Castle Place; 

• Grant Smith of 2659 Northwoods La., who served as vice president of sales for Smith Bros. Food Service and is now regional sales manager for a seafood company out of seattle. He retired from the Port Washington Fire Department as deputy fire chief after 31 years; 

• John Taucher of 2083 Upper Ridge Rd., a retired Port Washington High School social studies teacher; 

• Greg Welton of 2563 Applewood Dr., who has owned and operated Welton Builders for 30 years and has served as an alternate on the town’s Plan Commission.

The Town Board, which had previously said it would wait to see what the response was before determining how to fill the open seat, agreed Monday this is a good pool of candidates.

Members agreed to interview as many of the candidates as possible Wednesday, May 13. If not everyone can make it that night, they said, they will set up another interview session before making a decision.

Each interview is expected to last about 15 minutes, they said.

Former town chairman Lee Schlenvogt suggested that in addition to the Town Board members, a citizen representative also sit in on the interviews and discussions.

Schlenvogt, chairman of the Ozaukee County Board, said it is a system he has used successfully on the County Board, noting that residents sometimes have a different perspective than board members.

The board is seeking to fill an open supervisory seat vacated when Supr. Mike Didier was appointed town chairman to replace Jim Melichar, who stepped down April 14 for health reasons.

The supervisor’s term would run until April 2021.