Errors Force Town Resident to Restart Incorporation Effort

An effort to incorporate the Town of Brookfield as a village has been delayed after clerical errors prompted organizers to restart the process.

Town resident Jay Walt said he had about 80 signatures — more than the 50 he was required to file by a late September deadline. But engineers recently discovered "scrivener's errors" in the legal description of the lands sought to be incorporated.

Walt said he met with Town Administrator Rick Czopp and Town Attorney James Hammes. "I said, 'Guys, let’s just fix it.'"

On Friday, Walt published a new petition of his intent to file an incorporation request in the Waukesha Freeman newspaper. He said although he has a new six-month window to gather and submit the signatures to the state, he plans to do it in "the next couple months."

"I don't intend to use the entire months," he said.

The new description corrects the errors but does not change the specific acres of as a village, including the same 288 acres in the Town of Waukesha, Walt said.

He said he has not been involved in any talks with the Town of Waukesha or the City of Brookfield in alternatives such as a boundary agreement or annexations.

But Walt said town leaders have had "informal" discussions with the other municipalities. City aldermen last spring said they would be willing to annex the entire town rather than see the state create an adjacent village government.

The town and city of Brookfield have come to an in the southwest corner of the city, Walt noted.

He said he continues to hear support for the incorporation request, including from two residents who saw the newly published notice and called him offering to sign the new paperwork.

"They know the (town's) level of services are positive," Walt said. "And they know we have a very good reasonable tax rate. I would put our financials against anyone. It's a conservatively run community. ... I'd like to preserve this for years to come."