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September 9, at 10:00 a.m., the town boards of Winchester and Presque Isle will meet at the Presque Isle Town Hall. Winchester Town Chairman Nicholas Newton and Presque Isle Chairman Al Eschenbauch will lead a discussion on sharing a single municipal administrator. Both towns lack the manpower needed to operate alone. They are looking for a way to manage state rules without raising taxes.

The Financial Math

The core issue comes down to state law. Under Wis. Stat. § 66.0602, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue limits how much municipalities can raise through property taxes.

Because of these limits, neither town brings in enough tax revenue to hire a full-time administrator on its own. A qualified town administrator in Wisconsin earns an $85,000 to $110,000 base salary. Adding Wisconsin Retirement contributions and health insurance pushes the total cost past $130,000.

To solve this, the towns are looking at an intergovernmental cooperation law (Wis. Stat. § 66.0301). By pooling their money, Winchester and Presque Isle can split the cost of one executive salary while staying within their legal budget limits.

The Compliance Burden

The joint meeting reflects a staffing shortage documented across northern Wisconsin. According to data from the Elections & Voting Information Center, more than 700 municipal clerks in Wisconsin left their posts between 2020 and 2024. Furthermore, the Wisconsin Towns Association reports that 49 percent of town clerks statewide now have less than five years of experience.

The clerk shortage became so pronounced that the state legislature passed 2025 Wisconsin Act 71, granting town boards emergency authority to convert elected clerk positions into appointed ones so they could recruit qualified candidates from outside town boundaries.

Part-time clerks face expanding state reporting requirements. Under recent state budget legislation (Wis. Stat. § 85.64), towns must complete extensive field inventories of all roadway culverts measuring between 6 and 20 feet for the Department of Transportation. Clerks must also submit detailed annual Municipal Financial Reports to the Department of Revenue. Missing state deadlines can trigger penalties, including a reduction in state shared revenue payments.

The Local Friction

Splitting the bill solves the budget problem, but a shared boss creates new hurdles. Tomorrow's meeting will force supervisors of Winchester and  Presque Isle to answer hard questions about how this will actually work:

• The Power Dynamic: Who does the administrator report to when Newton and Eschenbauch disagree on a local zoning issue?

• Resource Split: How does the executive divide their time when a severe winter storm hits both towns at the exact same time?

• The Bill: How do they divide the overhead costs so taxpayers in both towns pay a fair share?

What to Expect If You Attend

According to the posted notice, the committee will not take any formal votes or binding action tomorrow. The session is designed only to build the agenda for an upcoming, larger stakeholder meeting.

Under Wisconsin Open Meetings Law, you have a legal right to walk into the room, take a seat, and watch your elected officials work. Because this is a planning work session without a public comment period, attendees are there to observe, not to speak.

However Sitting in the room offers something a formal board vote rarely does: the chance to hear local leaders debate raw budget numbers, air private doubts, and show their cards before those ideas are polished into official policy.