Port police officer to join Village Board

Two people ran for three seats on the Belgium Village Board in this month’s election, but all trustee spots will be full come Tuesday.

Dan Wolff, who said he pondered running for the board for a while, embarked on a write-in campaign two days before the election.

“I was asked last minute,” he said.

Wolff didn’t do any campaigning since the person who requested he run — Wolff wouldn’t say who it was — took care of that, he said.

It worked. Wolff received 28 write-in votes, beating registered write-in candidate Jeffrey Thiel’s 23.

Wolff accepted the position last week. He is expected to be sworn in on Tuesday, when the Village Board holds its reorganization meeting to assign trustees to committees.

Wolff, 46, has been a police officer in Port Washington for 21 years and has worked part-time for the Fredonia village marshal the past 11 years.

Wolff had worked second and third shift for the Port Washington Police Department, which didn’t allow him time to attend meetings. Now, he is on first shift and “I have the time to do things like this,” he said.

Wolff said he doesn’t have any priorities for the village yet.

“I’m very new to this as far as local government goes,” he said. “I will sit in with an open mind.”

Wolff has been married for 19 years and has two daughters, 17 and 16.

Wolff is originally from West Bend.

Both incumbents running unopposed were re-elected. Josh Borden received 361 votes (42%) and Rose Sauers received 332 (46%).

Dale Pfeifer, who works second shift and isn’t able to attend meetings unless he takes vacation, filed non-candidacy papers, creating the open seat. He survived a petition to be removed from the board last year due to his lack of attendance.

Pfeifer wasn’t on the ballot when he was elected to his second stint on the board in 2015. Once he was moved to second shift, he said he waited until the last second to file candidacy papers for the 2017 election, hoping someone else would run but figuring he would receive the most write-in votes if nobody did.