By Jacob Mathias

The spring election is just under five months away- but the time to submit paperwork for open seats in the Village of Plover is now.

Plover is divided into three wards, with two Trustees from each comprising the Board along with the village president.

According to Village Clerk Karen Swanson, three Village Trustee seats are open in each ward, as is the position of village president.
Current Village President Dan Schlutter has announced he will not be seeking reelection.

Al Haga, who serves on the village’s Plan Commission, and Village Board Member Tom Davies, have both submitted paperwork and say they intend to run for Schlutter’s spot.

But Swanson said as of Thursday, no one has filed paperwork to serve on the Board. Three Board Trustees- Fred LaRosa, Tom Davies and Steve Fritz- have terms ending in April.

“They need to declare their candidacy, file a campaign finance report and collect appropriate amount of signatures,” said Swanson.  “For the Village of Plover it’s a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 100 [signatures].”

Candidates do not have to report their campaign expenses if they spend less than $1000 or receive contributions totally over $100 from an individual source, according to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.

In order to file for election, one must be 18 years old, a resident of the Village of Plover and respective ward, and have no felony charges.

The deadline for declaring candidacy and submitting paperwork is January 6, 2015.

“If nobody files by Jan. 6 for a position that’s available for candidacy, then no names would appear on the ballot and a person interested in running would have to register as write-in candidate,” said Swanson.

The trustees and president each serve 2 year terms.  The elected board does get paid, with trustees earning $250 per month and the president a yearly salary of $24,000.

Village of Plover Board meetings are held on the first and third Wednesday of every month and committee meetings are held on the Mondays prior.

All candidacy forms can be found at the GAB website: www.gab.wi.gov.