Voters return Depies to Town Board, give Schmitz a seat

The incumbent and a newcomer won seats on the Fredonia Town Board in Tuesday’s general election.

Incumbent John Depies received 372 votes (35.53%) and Eric Schmitz got 268 (25.6%) in the four-person race for two seats, according to unofficial results from the Ozaukee County Clerk’s Office.

Former supervisor Matt Miller received 235 votes (22.45%) and Kandy Huiras received 168 (16.05%).

Turnout was nearly 44% with 678 of 1,544 ballots cast.

Depies, 71, is retired after working in insurance, manufacturing and farming. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and is single and lives on his family farm, which dates to the 1880s.

Depies said the “best long-term interest of town residents must be the goal I have to focus on. Every decision I make is based on those needs.”

Schmitz, 46, owns a promotional marketing distributorship and has a sports management degree from UW-La Crosse. He is married with three children. He has lived in the town for 14 years and is the sixth generation to live on his family’s farmstead, which dates to 1860.

Schmitz said, “I manage the company by myself and have learned a wide variety of management skills, from negotiations to solution problem solving to logistics coordination to accounting to customer service. I do the right thing,” he said.

Huiras, 50, is president of the Fredonia Adult Day Center. Miller, 54, is an accident repairman for Milwaukee County Transit and has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon. 

In the Northern Ozaukee School District, Brian Conrad, John Winnemuller and Lauren Simmons each won a term on the School Board in uncontested races.

The Village of Fredonia seat on the School Board didn’t have a candidate and had 173 write-in votes cast. Whoever has the most will be given the option to join the board.