Voters in Twin Lakes can vote in a contested election for village trustee in this year’s spring non-partisan election.
On the ballot will be:
- Jim Baxa
- Kevin Fitzgerald, an incumbent
- Tim Infusino, an incumbent
- Aaron Karow, an incumbent
- Bryan Neal
Infusino was appointed to fill the vacancy of Sharon Bower, who resigned from the board in January. She was already not running for re-election.
The candidates with the top three vote totals will fill the three available seats. Voters will be able to vote for three candidates.
The same questionnaire was submitted by westofthei.com to each candidate by email.
Here is their biographical information followed by their question responses, presented in alphabetical order:
Jim Baxa — Age: 57. Education: Continued and pursued further studies at the University of Wisconsin and College of DuPage. Experience that will directly benefit our community. 28 years in Municipal – Public Works Engineering – 34 years in the civil engineering industry. Development Engineering – Private and Public Development. Capital Improvement Plan – Budgeting, Design, and Construction Management. Stormwater Management: Grant writing, Staff Supervision; Certified Public Manager University of Wisconsin: Management development in federal, state, and local government. Certified Floodplain Manager through the Association of State Floodplain Managers. Volunteer Involvement. American Public Works Association – Illinois Lake County Branch. Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management-Inter-Organizational. Village of Twin Lakes-Stormwater Management Committee Occupation: Engineering Technician/Assistant Village Engineer for a civil engineering consultant firm. Previous elected or appointed public office: None at this time, taking the first step forward.
Kevin Fitzgerald — No answers returned.
Tim Infusino –Age: 38. Education: Bachelor of Science Information and Communication Technologies. Occupation: IT Security in Healthcare. Previous elected or appointed public office: Village of Twin Lakes Police Commission (2019-Present), Village of Twin Lakes Board of review (2019-Present), Village of Twin Lakes Trustee (appointed 2025)
Aaron Karow — Age: 48. Education: Grade School – Randall; High School – Wilmot; College – University
of Wisconsin Platteville (BS – Civil Engineering); Civil Engineering Continuing Education. Occupation: Civil Engineer
Previous elected or appointed public office:: Village of Twin Lakes – Trustee for 20 years (2005 – Present) and Kenosha County Board Supervisor – District 23 for 3 years (2022 – Present)
Bryan Neal — Age: 61 years of age. Education: I graduated college Cum Laude from Vanderbilt University. I received my medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. I completed a surgical residence at Wake Forest University. I pursued my Hand Surgery Fellowship at the Philadelphia Hand Center of Thomas Jefferson University. Occupation: Orthopedic Surgeon. Previous elected or appointed public office:I was elected to a 2 year term as Vice Chief of the Department of Orthopedics and subsequently elected to a 2 year term as Chief of the Department of Orthopedics of a 400 bed Level 2 trauma center. During my 28 years as a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon I served on the Medical Executive Committee, Bylaws Committee, Surgical Section Chiefs Committee, Surgical Pavilion Committee, Trauma Committee, Physicians Assistant Committee, Clinical Performance Improvement Committee, Total Hip Arthroplasty Committee, Emergency Care Committee, Infection Control Committed, and the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. Locally within the Village of Twin Lakes, for more the 20 years, I have been elected to and have served on the Lake District Committee. On two different occasions I have been elected to a 2 year term on the Twin Lakes Park Cooperative Board (very similar to a HOA entity). I am currently serving the first of a two year term and I am the Board Secretary.
1.) Why are you the best candidate for village trustee?
Baxa — As a resident of Twin Lakes for over twenty-five years, I have learned to appreciate the community where I live and wish to see it maintain its character. My background as a project manager for twenty-eight years with a municipality has provided me with extensive public service experience that will enhance the current village board while offering valuable insights and asking the right questions to help make decisions that are best for our community. The role of a Village Trustee is to ensure and improve our community, maintain a positive trajectory while being mindful of the residents and property owners, and be conscious of spending taxpayers’ dollars wisely to enhance our community.
I have worked in the public sector for over twenty-eight years and currently work for a consulting engineering company, performing the same duties I held in my previous career for multiple communities in Illinois. My extensive background includes public capital improvement projects, budgets, stormwater management, and experience collaborating with attorneys, landowners, and major developers to ensure compliance with code requirements while advancing the benefits for each community I have served. Additionally, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin’s Certified Public Manager program, which emphasizes federal, state, and local government management development. I aim to leverage this experience and knowledge to support our community moving forward and to help village staff with questions or advice, ensuring their goal of streamlining processes is seamless for residents, property owners, and village staff.
Fitzgerald — No answer returned.
Infusino — As an active member of our community, I will work to continue protecting the residents of the village, and push for positive changes for the benefit of our community as a whole.
Karow — I have gained valuable experience and local knowledge as a lifelong resident (fourth generation), Twin Lakes Village Trustee, Kenosha County Supervisor, civil engineer and former volunteer firefighter. I will utilize my abilities, skills and understanding of challenges to help make the best decisions for our community. My focus on being fiscally conservative while balancing needs and improving quality of life will guide my decision making. My guiding principles of honesty, hard work, detail oriented, respectful, and resourceful all lead me to effectively communicate, build integrity, and solve problems. I strive to serve the best interest of our community, and I am passionate about improving it. I apply common sense solutions gained through lessons learned and what it means to be a “good neighbor”. I ask good questions to get to the bottom of things to make good decisions that weigh heavy on preserving and improving our quality of life while maintaining freedoms. I have grown up in Twin Lakes and am raising my family here, I look forward to providing a great place to live now and for future generations.
Neal — As a part time Village resident for more than 20 years and now as a full time Village resident almost 7 years, with my wife and I building our “forever” home in this community and having committed to spending the rest of our lives in Twin Lakes, I have the interest, enthusiasm, energy, drive, knowledge, ability and moxie to serve the public in striving to make the Village of Twin Lakes a wonderful, healthy and better place to live, work, and raise a family.
2.) What do you see as the chief issues faced by the Village Board and how would you address them if elected?
Baxa — Development, public safety, and our most significant assets—our lakes—must continue to be prioritized.
Financial responsibility, development, public safety, and our most significant assets—our lakes—must be prioritized. We need to recognize the importance of the goals to the village budget, which benefits and addresses the best interests of the entire community, and adhere to them. This will include examining our gaps in budgeting and spending, inquiring if there is potential for pursuing outside grants and developing long-term goals. I have participated in projects where the budgeting process requires several years of planning, and our community recognizes that nothing should be approved in a single board meeting without a thorough examination to determine if it is the best outcome for our community. The Village must adopt a better approach to single or multiple-site developments. I have noticed the deficiency of enforcement of on-site management for sites under development; there have been several
instances when site conditions have been deplorable, and the site has remained idle for weeks. Conditions like these lead to significant erosion, which enters the village storm sewer and flows into the lakes. Once it leaves the site, the village and taxpayer money are used to clean up the repercussions. Our park system is also meant for children, teens, families, and pet owners. The park system is an extension of our village that should be maintained with updated resources and monitored to provide a safe and trustworthy environment for families to visit and enjoy these amenities. We need to assess our park system and develop a solid capital improvement plan to ensure amenity for our community. Our lakes are the jewels of our community. As a member of the Village Lake District’s stormwater management committee, one of our goals is to monitor and provide the village with options for projects to reduce sediment runoff into our lakes. Projects like these take years to implement due to budget constraints and prioritization. One of my goals is to continue pressing for these measures. The village is progressing positively, and I aim to offer extra resources to ensure our community remains a wonderful place to live and visit.
Fitzgerald — No answer returned.
Infusino — From my perspective, the biggest issue the Board will be facing is the increased expenditures of maintaining the Village. To help address this, I will work towards prioritizing the needs of the village, based on existing budgets, and focusing on getting the highest value of service for the lowest negotiated pricing.
Karow — Issues of top concern are protecting our lakes, providing quality emergency and law enforcement services, maintaining and improving our infrastructure and responsibly developing our community. Lakes Elizabeth and Mary are high priority as use and development increases. Our lakes are a major part of our quality of life, making our
decisions very important to keep balance between responsible development and preservation. Our rescue squad services have fundamentally shifted to full-time staffing due to call volume increases and staffing challenges. This change causes a significant increase to the cost for ambulance and paramedic services while improving the level of service moving forward in years to come. We are still navigating the impacts of this change and working to figure out the best solutions through intergovernmental cooperation. Our budget has been significantly impacted with the additional cost, and we now must look to borrow capital items like vehicles, equipment and road improvements.
Developing a capital improvement plan (CIP) in conjunction with our budget is needed to guide our decisions and maintain a high level of service with a balanced budget. Additionally, inflationary pressures and cost of living increases will continue to be a challenge while working within the state directed budget cap. I remain concerned with the presence of illegal drugs within our community and will continue to support our police department to diminish and deter the presence of illegal drugs and criminal activities. We have approved a school resource officer in cooperation with Randall School to improve relationships and enforcement in both the school and our community. With the completion of the new Village Hall and wastewater treatment plant upgrades, our focus now shifts to maintaining what we have and looking for opportunities to improve where we can.
Neal — The coming, if not arrived, financial crisis is a formidable threat. The village needs to borrow about $300,000 this year to meet operating expenses and will need to reconcile a $400,000 – $500,000 deficit in perpetuity unless we rebalance the revenue and expenditure imbalance. I have an unyielding commitment to balance our budget each year outside of extraordinary circumstances. The Village also needs to rehabilitate its reputation of favoritism and the perceived unwillingness to or unfair enforcement of the laws our elected leadership asks us to live under. I have directly wrangled with the stale Village leadership on multiple issues to improve Village performance and improve its ability to operate openly and with transparency. I am hopeful the voting public will judge me worthy of trying to bring about healthy change to the Village we all love to call home.
