Nov. 16, 2022 7:15p; Updated on 11-17 to correct the fraction needed for bonding approval
(WGTD)---A $675,000 matching grant earmarked for the restoration of the ceremonial courtroom in the Kenosha County Courthouse may be in jeopardy because of action taken earlier this month by the Kenosha County Board.
In finalizing the county's budget for next year, the board voted to eliminate two positions in the public works department, including a project manager. Assigned to a number of projects over the years, Frank Martinelli currently serves as the county's point person for restoration of the courthouse's largest and most ornate courtroom, currently occupied by Judge Bruce Schroeder.
The room will be 100 years old in 2025. A capital campaign is currently underway to raise nearly $1.4 million in private funds. $675,000 of that amount will be covered by the Jeffris Family Foundation, as long as the goal is met.
In a letter to County Executive Samantha Kerkman. Jeffris Family Foundation President Thomas Jeffris said the foundation's contribution could be "in peril" because of the pending departure of Martinelli. "It has been our 20-years of experience in making such grants that strong leadership is critical to successfully executing the fundraising and restoration process," Jeffris wrote. "Mr. Martinelli's historical building restoration project management skills and intimate knowledge of this complex project's details could be difficult to replicate. He was one of the best I've dealt with," Jeffris said.
Money for Martinelli's position--and that of the second public works position the board voted to eliminate--was included in the budget proposal Kerkman gave to the board to review.
The vote to cut the positions from the budget was politically motivated, according to County Board Supervisor Monica Yuhas, who released the Jeffris letter to WGTD and the Kenosha News.
Yuhas was one of several supervisors who voted against eliminating the positions.
During the debate, Supervisor Zach Rodriguez charged that the minority was trying to protect the jobs of friends.
While the board majority passed the county's operating budget with the cuts included, the board failed to get the three-quarters majority needed to pass the county's capital improvement program. Several of the supervisors who voted against the bonding measure said they did so as a protest against the position cuts.
In an email, Yuhas noted that she and several other supervisors who voted against the cuts met last Friday with Kerkman and presented three budget alternatives.
In an emailed statement to WGTD, Kerkman said: " The budget has been passed by the County Board. There are ongoing conversations about the bonding issue, and I'm looking forward to progress in the near future."
In a county website post, Judge Schroeder's courtroom is described as an "architectural gem" that's replicated in few other counties.
At the moment, much of the room's original ornamentation is obscured by a drop ceiling.
Among other things, the proposed project would restore an art glass laylight and a decorative frieze that encircles the room with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: "Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others."
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