September 18, 2007

New Bremen Village Planner Karen Mauch

Karen Mauch, New Bremen Village Planner since March 2006, addressed the club and shared information regarding the responsibilities of her position.  Karen was raised in Pennsylvania and was educated at Shippensburg University and the University of Cincinnati.  She previously worked for the City of Auburn NY in Economic Planning and Development and lives locally with her husband and two sons.

As an employee of the village, the planner is responsible for neither the Bremenfest or weddings as people often believe.  Her primary responsibilities do however include writing grants for local projects, economic development and other unpredictable tasks as assigned by the Village Administrator.

She describes grant writing as a fairly simple procedure of completing a questionnaire, describing and 'selling' the project.  One grant that was recently awarded is for $479K to rebuild the lock-keeper's house at the Lock One Park.

With respect to economic development, she is involved in varied programs, projects and activities that work to prosper the economic development of the community.  She is on staff for the NB Economic Development Corporation which is an offshoot of the village government.  In that capacity, she studies what types of businesses would complement the existing economic base.  Two recent business additions to the village are Fastenal and Safeway Packaging that is relocating from Minster.

Some other responsibilities that have kept Karen busy have been zoning research, working with the zoning planning board, conducting the ongoing recycling survey, developing  interpretive signs for the tow path at the recently renovated lock uptown and maintaining the village's website. 

Hosting Rotarian: Sandy Thieman