Emerald honors former board members; Tom Wink, Henry Hurtgen and Don Prinsen for years of service
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THREE INDIVIDUALS dedicated nearly a century and a half of service as Town of Emerald board members. From left to right are: Don Prinsen with 50 years of service; Tom Wink who served on the board for 48 years; and David Hurtgen, representing his late father Henry Hurtgen, who was a board member for 47 years. —photo by Renee Bettendorf
By Renee Bettendorf
EMERALD — About 30 people attended the Emerald town board meeting last Wednesday evening (March 12) where after adjournment former board members Tom Wink, Henry Hurtgen and Don Prinsen were honored for their many years of service. Cake was served, plaques were handed out, stories were told and folks marveled at how long the three had served on the board.
“They have a combined service of almost 150 years,” noted Todd Petersen, Emerald town chairman.
After 48 years, Wink decided to not seek reelection this spring and the meeting held on March 12 was his last. When he announced that he was seeking retirement, Petersen did some research and learned that Prinsen, who retired from the board in 2017, served for 50 years and Hurtgen and Wink were on the board together since 1977.
Petersen was asked to step in to serve as interim town chairman for the town after Hurtgen became unable to fulfill his position due to his health almost two years ago. Hurtgen passed away last summer at the age of 81. Since it was Wink’s last meeting, Petersen thought it would be great to honor him for his service along with Hurtgen and Prinsen.
All three graduated from Glenwood City high school in 1960 and over the years they oversaw many changes in the area. For one, they were behind getting the current Emerald town hall and shop built in 2006. Wink said the old town hall and shop were located just down the road about a quarter mile and the town outgrew the space.
“We had all our own equipment and we didn’t have enough room for it,” said Wink of the old town hall and shop space.
He said the town sold the property and the two buildings are still there today. Wink and Prinsen have a lot of memories from the old town hall including the fact that it did not have indoor plumbing or a very good heating system.
“The old town hall was so cold, we couldn’t get it heated up and there was no bathroom or running water, just an outdoor biffy behind the building,” said Prinsen.
As a result, the board would often hold their meetings at each others’ homes. They would take turns each month hosting the meeting and if someone wanted to speak at a meeting, they just came to whichever house it was being held at.
Besides the joys of being warm and having indoor plumbing, an added advantage of taking turns holding meetings at their homes was that the Emerald town board would have a meal together and plenty of time to visit after their meetings adjourned.
They still had to use the old town hall for elections and the poll workers who were there all day made due even when it was snowing or storming. At one point, luckily this was not during a day when the polls were open, a live skunk made an appearance in the outdoor biffy.
“There were a lot of reasons why we needed to get something up to date,” said Wink of the new town hall.
Another big change they saw while on the board was going from all hand written receipts to the use of computers, said Prinsen. Many people paid their property taxes with cash back then and they would go to a town board member’s house to drop off the money, he said.
“We had a kitchen full of people paying taxes,” remembered Prinsen.
The board has always had two supervisors and one chairman and those three elected officials are the only individuals who can vote on town decisions, this is still true today and is common in small communities. But in Emerald it used to be that one supervisor was elected from the north side of the town and one from the south side.
“It was a different world,” said Prinsen.
Besides upgrading to a new town hall and shop and ushering the town into the 21st century Wink, Prinsen and Hurtgen also had to navigate a few more controversial issues.
There was the time they hired a tax assessor service and the assessor from that company was very inexperienced. He messed up and mixed up many residents’ taxes and when they had the board of review meeting there were people lined up clear out to highway G, reminisced Wink.
“That was the biggest mess ever,” he said.
An exceptionally tumultuous time was when the large dairy, which was then known as Emerald Dairy, wanted to move into the area. Wink and Prinsen remembered holding many meetings about Emerald Dairy. Often there were lots of public comments at those meetings, some of which were threatening.
“When Emerald Dairy came in, that was a war,” said Prinsen.
A lot of residents thought Emerald Diary would put the small farmers out of business. Wink pointed out that many of the small farming operations had folded well before Emerald Diary came to town and that big dairies are the new reality.
“It’s like Walmart coming in, it’s maybe not what you like, but they’re here to stay,” said Wink.
When asked about what advice they would give to people interested in running for a town board Wink said: “You gotta put your input into it and you gotta come to an agreement with everybody on the board.”
“And listen to the people,” said Prinsen.
