KRONENWETTER – Residents of Kronenwetter will have new village government leadership following the hire of a new village administrator.
Shawano County Administrative Coordinator James Davel accepted an offer Oct. 1 to take on the village administrator role, according to a news release. The Village Board unanimously approved the hiring in a Sept. 30 special meeting.
Davel served in the Shawano County administrative role since the position’s creation in 2021. Prior to taking on the position, Davel served as the county’s emergency management coordinator for three years and 30 years in the U.S. Army, according to the release.
“I think it’s a different challenge than what I have been working the last few years,” Davel said in in the release. “In the service, I moved around a lot doing different jobs and wanted to try something new.”
Davel’s time in the Army took him around the world including to Afghanistan, Kansas and Minnesota before he retired with the rank of colonel in 2018 and returned to Shawano, his hometown.
The hiring of a new administrator comes after several years of turnover in the role following the departure of administrator Richard Downey, who served in the role from 2012 to 2022. Several people held the role on an interim basis while Leonard Ludi and Peter Kampfer were hired and resigned within months of taking on the position in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The role has been vacant since July 2024, according to the release.
“I don’t see any challenges, only opportunities to improve the community,” Davel said. “I believe Kronenwetter is a great community with a great team supporting that community. I also thought it was pretty interesting that Kronenwetter is the largest village in the state and nation.”
Davel will officially begin work in the position Nov. 3, according to the release.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Kronenwetter Village Board unanimously chooses new administrator after several departures
Reporting by Erik Pfantz, Wausau Daily Herald / Wausau Daily Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
