Fred Schuster Interview

I have been a resident of Weston since 1974.  My home is Antigo.  I moved here with a transfer with Wausau Insurance Company that's were I put my career in 32 years.  In 1991 there was a vacancy on the village board and I was appointed to fill out a term for one person that had left.  And I have been on the village board since then.  I ran for reelection and a year ago when our previous president died, Vilas Machmueller, the village board appointed me as president to fill that term.

What role did you play in the development of the Weston community?

 Well, as village president you are at the head, you have to attend most of the meetings and the extra curricular meetings. I'm on the Marathon planning organization in addition to that I'm also on the Everest Metro Police finance commission.  And I just oversee, the village board's responsibility is to set policy for the village and the staff hired employees carry out the policies we establish.  I oversee how they're doing and what they are doing.

 What major issues have you dealt with?

 One of the biggest ones was back in 1993 we formed the Everest Metro Police Department which was a combined community.  At that time it was all the town of Weston and the city of Schofield. The next thing that came up in 1996 the town of Weston petitioned prior to that to get status of a village.  One of the problems we were having in Weston as a town was that any portion of the town can be annexed to another village or city. And we were having a lot of annexations going on, which the people in an area that want to be annexed they have to petition; they have to sign a document and say they want to petitioned to another community. And we were losing a lot of our tax base, so we filed for incorporation. The state has to review that, and that took about a year and a half maybe longer. But we finally became a village in 1996. And the advantage to a village or city status is that other communities cannot annex any portion of you.  It helped to stabilize our tax base, our boundaries, those sorts of things.

 Another issue that helped further stabilize our tax base probably 10 to 12 years ago we developed an industrial park that you are probably familiar with out on highway 29. And we were trying to get entities in there with good paying jobs. The whole purpose was to keep employment going, get some good employers.  We pretty much filled one portion of that business park and we developed another one across highway 29, and we call it business park south.  We have currently got a few tenants in there now and some development going on there.  It stabilizes our tax base industry, it pays better taxes then just residents. We try to maintain a balance between residential growth and business growth.  We don't want it all to be just business. Because when you are bringing employees in they have to have a place to live. 

 One of the other things while I was on the board, we established the medical community.  The biggest entity was getting Saint Clare's Hospital and the Marshfield Clinic to build a branch out here. At that same time Aspirus has built a branch out here.

 What do you think has been your greatest impact on the community?

 Individually, I would say perhaps getting the hospital out here.  That has brought a lot of tax base for us although some of it is tax exempt, the majority is not. The incorporation was probably the biggest because that stabilized things for the Village of Weston. We don't have to worry about annexations anymore.

 How has Weston changed since you lived here?

 Well, I think I have pretty much established that.  You'd have to go and talk to the old timers. I don't know when, the 40s or 50s, the city of Schofield was the big entity with 2,500 people and Weston way back then was 500 people. Well, as you well know that has changed dramatically.  Where as the city of Schofield hasn't been able to grow because it is land locked.  The Village of Weston is now over 14,000 people.  We lost quite a few citizens due to annexations.  But, we have gained that all back because Weston is a place where people want to live. We have affordable taxes, it is an area away from the downtown area if you want to call it that. Most of our housing is relatively new within the last 20 years. You take for instance the Tappe subdivision, they have built 500 houses in the last seven or eight years.

 Do you think there are changes that have brought changes for the worse, or were they all for the better?

 Well, there are always some negative things. Bringing a lot of people in it isn't always pure profit. When you grow like that everything else has to grow with it. We have had to hire more firemen and more policemen.  It demands more services such as road upkeep, snow plowing, and repairing roads.  We have had to add two new water wells plus a new water tower. So, it has good impact and some drawbacks to it.

 What makes Weston different from other communities?

 I think our last administrator is the one that has really brought us forward.  We used to be like other municipalities where we didn't consider our tax payers customers. They were just people that came in and we just served them. But, since we went to this new policy of considering them as customers, I think the citizens are a lot happier with the way we're doing things. They are treated fairly, we can't always please everybody but we try to do the best for the majority of the people.  That's one of the reasons people want to live in Weston because they are treated like customers.  And, we want to treat them the best we can. 

How is being a political leader in Weston different than being a political leader in other communities?

 We do not have lots of controversy when an issue comes before us we study it as best we can. The village board is generally united on when we do move forward with a new policy. Because we have studied it and everybody understands. And we try to what is best for the citizens, and trying to keep our tax money to take care of the necessities and provide people with the services they want and demand.  For example, the aquatic center.  Initially I was skeptical about the aquatic center because it is a cost not a moneymaker. So, we put it to referendum and I was amazed overwhelmingly people wanted the aquatic center. The last thing we did along that line was the skateboard park. I was amazed at how many people, when we started talking about the skateboard park, wanted that sort of thing because there's lots of kids that aren't into the organized sports such as basketball, football, and soccer.  They wanted more of an individual sport and we just got overwhelming support and contributions. Again it is providing something trying to remember all people.

What is one of your success stories?

 Well I think the latest one was the skateboard park.  The other big one was Saint Clare's Hospital and Marshfield Clinic getting that in place and the Industrial Park.  And getting that on a tif financing where money doesn't come directly from the taxpayers, but tif is complicated.  I think that has been a great success.

 Have you had any failures?

 I'm sure we have but not too many.

What personality traits have helped you as a political leader?

 I think the biggest one is trying to be fair. We have a lot of people that come in with one thing on their mind and they kind of forget about everybody else and how it might affect other people.  So you try to analyze what is going to be best for the majority of the people and proceed accordingly.

 What is the most exciting memory you have being a leader in Weston?

 Probably the incorporation. We saw so much of our community disappearing for instance at one time the town of Weston included the power plant and where Wausau Homes is and a lot of that area out that way. It even included the area surrounding the Wausau Country Club. And we lost a lot of tax base to annexations, so that was probably the biggest thing that helped stabilize. In those areas if you repair roads, sewer and water, and then you lose those areas you lost part of your investment to another community. So, I think that would probably be the one thing that helped the Village of Weston.

 What was your most difficult experience as a Weston leader?

Probably the same thing, losing part of our community to some other entity due to annexations.

 What do you see for the future of Weston?

 Well, right now everybody is in such economic turmoil, we don't know what the state is going to be allowing us for what they are going to be reimbursing for our expenses. So, currently our biggest challenge is going to be where are we going to be in a year or two years from now.  If the state cuts our funding we may have to cut employees or services such as less police force, less fire protection, and less road maintenance. Those are the big challenges we are facing. We really do enjoy serving Weston's citizens in all aspects of the community. 

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