City of PdC administrator resigns post
By Correne Martin
After six years as city administrator in Prairie du Chien, Aaron Kramer will resign from his post on March 3. Following closed session of the Prairie du Chien Common Council Tuesday night, the council accepted his resignation and released him from his current contract, which was scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2021. The council also appointed new City Clerk-Treasurer Tina Fuller as acting city administrator, with her position effective upon Kramer’s official resignation and concluding upon the hiring of a new city administrator. Fuller just recently started the clerk-treasurer job Dec. 5 and fully took over for retiring clerk Barb Elvert on Jan. 9.
Kramer became Prairie du Chien’s city administrator on Jan. 24, 2010, replacing Jim Gitz, who resigned the previous summer. He came to Prairie du Chien after more than six years as mayor of Ripon.
Kramer said Wednesday he will begin working for the village of Hobart, a community east of Green Bay, in Brown County, on March 6.
“While my family and I did not come to this decision lightly, and will miss the people we have met and who have helped us over the past seven years, this was an opportunity at this stage of my life which I could not pass up,” Kramer said.
“Many good things were accomplished in the past several years, due in large part to the support and hard work of the city staff, elected officials and many dedicated volunteers and residents, and there are still things to be done, and will be done. I will be leaving one community with a bright future, a pro-active and engaged mayor and common council for another community with a bright future and engaged civic leadership. I can only hope, though, to find another Pete’s Hamburgers or an equivalent culinary treat of its kind in that part of the state.”
The Hobart Village Board approved a three-year contract with Kramer Tuesday night. Hobart has a population of about 7,070 residents, and it’s expected to increase by about 97 percent by 2030 to 12,600, according to Wisconsin Department of Administration estimates.
The Prairie du Chien Common Council has approved a contract with GovHR USA to conduct a city administrator recruitment and selection process.
Other business
On Tuesday night, the council also:
•approved the sale of lot 2 in the North Gateway Business Park to BoxLogix for $15,000.
•appointed a hiring panel to interview the candidates for street superintendent and then present their recommendation to the council. The panel will include the mayor, city administrator, personnel committee chairman and public works committee chairman.
•saw photos of the city’s newest fire truck, which is currently under construction.
•approved awarding the sale of $2.55 million in general obligation corporate purpose bonds to Bankers’ Bank, of Madison, for 2.957 percent. As a result, the issue was downsized to $2.535 million, and the projected cost of paying back the bonds was reduced by $39,525 from the estimated interest presented to the council in December, according to Kramer. The bonds will be used to finance $2 million of library projects and to refinance for the city’s 10-year fire truck loan with a balloon payment in year 10, which was at 2.95 percent to a 20-year repayment at about the same rate.
