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Former Coon Valley Village Board trustee Amy Stakston blasted the actions of some of the current board trustees for their public response to a letter the village received and shared with the public at the May village board monthly meeting. Stakston was vocal in her response to the board for what she deemed an unprofessional response to a letter submitted to Monte Nelson and board members, by Coon Valley resident Jean Sims.

Sims who was defeated in the April election informed the board that although she was not elected to office, that she would be keeping an eye on community business. In her letter she slammed the board for not paying attention to the real issues and concerns of the community. She asked the board to back off negative dealings with the local police department and allow them to continue to work to improve public safety.

“In my opinion you (referring to Nelson and the board) are more concerned about people who may or may not stop here, rather than we who live here,” Sims letter said.

According to Sims real issues include: the safety of residents who live in Coon Valley everyday; the lack of respect for residential property by late night tavern dwellers who dispose of beer bottles on private lawns; rental properties which in Sims' words, “look like crap”; and programs for the elderly whose life doesn’t evolve around baseball.

Sims was extremely blunt in her comments to the board and sparked a negative reaction from some board members after the letter was publically read.

President Nelson stated his belief that Sims is misinformed about the board’s community service progress. He added his assumption that uninformed people may be getting misinformation through reading the blogs on the Westby Times website.

Stakston was outraged when Nelson used the word “witless” in his public response to Sim’s letter, even if he was referring to people who respond to blogs and do not have the guts to sign their names to the comments they post. Stakston agreed with Nelson about people who hide behind blogs, but told Nelson his overall response and comments were inappropriate in a public meeting and reminded him that some of those same people he referred to as witless may have voted him into office.

Nelson defended his statements, since Sims' letter was a matter of public record, and suggested that Sims should personally attend the monthly board meetings to become better informed about village business.

A lack of communication kept tension levels high when Coon Creek horse pull coordinator Sandy Rundahl and Coon Creek rendezvous coordinator Verlin Buros defended the future of the events they coordinate, which were in question according to a posting on the May monthly agenda.

Nelson questioned whether the village of Coon Valley was big enough to handle a growing rendezvous and horse pull and whether the events coincided well with the youth foundation duck race. According to Nelson hard feelings are developing in regards to the fast approaching events and that he felt the board was not being provided with enough information about the upcoming festivities.

“These events just aren’t marrying up real well and it’s creating hard feelings,” Nelson said.

Speaking on behalf of the rendezvous and horse pull she reminded the village that the horse pull and rendezvous were locked in last year and that it wasn’t until late 2007 that the youth organization requested to piggyback the duck race (which was traditionally held in July) onto the already scheduled Coon Creek events in June.

The Coon Creek committee agreed to add the duck race to the schedule, but a series of unplanned circumstances as-of-late have prevented the separate committees from meeting one-on-one and nailing down the weekend agenda, which eventually raised concerns and alerted the board to possible problems.

“Don’t you think we’ve been doing a good job? Why would you want to hand it off to someone else,” Rundahl asked.

“We want to work with the youth, but things have come up which have simply prevented our committees meeting,” Buros said.

Rundahl was also bewildered by Nelson’s comments regarding turning over funds to the youth association and senior citizens, since any money raised from the events is earmarked to expand the festivities in the future. Rundahl has been the driving force behind the horse pull and annually raises in access of $2,000 to keep the event alive.

“I don’t saddle anyone else with raising this prize money. I take that on myself with my husband and Renita. We know what needs to be done and we do it. It’s tough to get enough volunteers to put on a festival let alone raise additional money. You make me feel like I’m doing something wrong and I’m just bending over backwards trying to do something worthwhile for the community without adding any finacial burden on the village,” Rundahl said.

Current Coon Creek committee members include: Sandy Rundahl, chairman, Verlin Buros, Renita Williamson, Mike Johnson, Lawrence Ecklor, Lou DiSciascio, Leonard Olson, Brad Role, Charlie Nelson, Roger Niedfeldt and Monte Nelson as the village board representative.

Rundahl and Buros were both bothered by the fact that the board elected to raise concerns about the combination of events only weeks before they are scheduled to occur. Nelson became upset after he recently learned that rendezvous participants pay for camp sites in other communities and yet set up for free in Coon Valley.

“Free camping is what makes it attractive. I believe we deserve to charge like any other town,” Nelson said.

According to Rundahl and Buros the free set-up for rendezvous participants was already set to be abolished in 2009 and that board members would have realized the proposed change if they had read previous committee minutes or had attended any Coon Creek committee meetings.

Miscommunication was evident as the dialogue continued, yet all parties agreed to work out a compromise before the 2008 Coon Creek event. Further concerns will need to be ironed out between the board and committees well in advance of the 2009 Coon Creek Festival.

The Coon Valley Village Board will meet on Tuesday, June 10 at 7 p.m.