Response to Larry Vant's letter to the editor in the Janesville Gazette

Editor,
Janesville Gazette

Re County’s Intersport deal is lacking common sense by Larry Vant

While I have had occasion to read a portion of the material concerning the Intersport deal, I am certain I do not have all the information to make a good decision. At this time only the County Board, the County Administrator, and the attorneys should have sufficient information.

I am not a great fan of our current County Board. And I support a smaller County Board, as does Mr. Vant. I believe they fail to gather all the information they need before they make decisions. They fail to seek advise from their constituents and they hate to listen to the periods of public comment. Like Mr. Vant I believe this board lacks common sense. And finally they seek to shift blame for their decisions.

Unlike Mr. Vant, I firmly believe there is a place for government to encourage business development. My company is in a business park where the land originally sold at below market value to encourage businesses to locate within the park. As a result in a three block area there are now many jobs where before none existed. And there are many businesses paying property taxes and personal property taxes where before there were very low taxes as the land was farmed. You must remember that businesses are very low consumers of services yet they pay relatively high taxes. Was this a good investment for government to make, I believe it was.

Is Intersport a good investment for Walworth County? At this time I really do not know, and I question if the majority of the County Board knows. We will have to wait until the meeting on March 13th to determine if the County has made a good or bad decision. And even then we may not know for several years. It does seem like a lot of land, for a small phase one footprint.

Be the decision good or bad, the people to hold responsible are the County Board not the Administrator Mr. Bretl. Mr. Bretl had no vote in this matter, only the County Board voted. Unlike other counties he does not have veto powers. The Administrator may have brought this matter to the attention of the Board, but he did not influence the board. If they claim they were rushed or did not have sufficient time or knowledge, it is only their fault. They have the power to slow things down or speed them up. This is another time like the budget where Mr. Bretl has become the owner of the decision without the ability to vote on the decision. Many of the County Board members do not like to live with their decisions once they are made, so they shift the blame. Mr. Bretl is not bankrupting this county, the sole responsibility for that is the current County Board not doing their job.

Let us hope the County Board will show enough courage and responsibility to fully understand the contract they must vote on when it is presented. And let us hope they put in sufficient safeguards to protect the citizens of Walworth County.