Rollings, Szumski Earn Seats on Village Board

Lauri Rollings and Brenda Szumski will take over as new village trustees, as they edged out fellow write-in candidates Andrew Martin and William Demet in Tuesday’s election.

The votes from the four-way write-in campaign for two open trustee seats were tallied Wednesday morning, as clerks did not have time to manually count all of the votes Tuesday night.

Szumski received 933 votes; Rollings received 643 votes; Demet received 604 votes; and Martin received 259 votes.

Rollings said she was excited by the news.

“I had a good feeling going into Election Day yesterday, but I definitely knew it wasn’t guaranteed because I think all four of the candidates made a strong showing at the debate and ran pretty good campaigns,” she said. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to serve on the board and look forward to getting to work and helping the village address the pressing issues facing it.”

She said one of the first things she wants to do is sit down with Department of Public Works Director Dan Naze to discuss opportunities for residents to take advantage of funding for replacing sewer laterals in conjunction with some of the village’s upcoming sewer projects.

“If you can make it affordable for homeowners, it makes more sense to have homeowners replace their laterals at same time the village is doing its work,” she said.

As a former attorney for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, she said she also hopes to improve relations between MMSD and the village in a cooperative fashion.

Szumski said it was both overwhelming and humbling to see the number of voters that weighed in on the trustee race, and she said she did not anticipate the roughly 300-vote spread in her favor.

After attending board meetings over the last six weeks, she said she is excited to take a seat on the board.

“That has been helpful in learning about how the board functions and what the structure and process is,” she said. “Clearly, there is a learning curve, but that has been helpful. I’m excited.”