City's Memorial Day Festivities are Sunday

The annual event will be held at Bicentennial Park, located just south of the Greenfield Public Library, at 1 p.m. May 27.

The City of Greenfield will honor the Armed Forces during a ceremony at Bicentennial Park, 5300 W. Layton Ave., at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 27. The event will feature a free lunch and a special awards ceremony that will have a surprise guest of honor. Other highlights will include the poem A Soldier Died Today read by former alderman Donald Almquist, a performance by the Pioneer Drum & Bugle Corps and a 21-gun salute and taps by American Legion Post 18. Retired Police Chief Frank Springob will serve as master of ceremonies.

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Greenfield Police Inspector Retiring After Four Decades

Mark Wildish, the second-highest ranking member of the department, is retiring later this month after 41 years.

Mark Wildish was just an 18-year-old aspiring police officer attending MATC when he saw an ad in the paper announcing the Greenfield Police Department was hiring police clerks. He had to ask for directions the first time he came to the police station. Not just directions to the station, but to Greenfield. “I didn’t even know where Greenfield was when I first applied,” admitted Wildish, who is originally from Menomonee Falls. Over the last four decades, however, Wildish has become quite familiar with the territory. Since being hired as a police clerk in 1971, he has spent the last 41 years with the department. His impressive career will come to an end later this month, however, as Wildish is one of 23 city employees, including nine in the …

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Greenfield's Retirements Produce Unimaginable Loss of Experience

This year's city retirements will account for a loss of more than 600 years of combined service.

Over the final five weeks of 2011, the City of Greenfield will lose more than 400 years of experience as 15 employees in five different departments have retired or will between Nov. 27 and Dec. 31. The numbers for the entire year are even more staggering. Before the upcoming exodus, eight more city workers combining for 242 years of service retired earlier in the year, boosting 2011’s totals to 23 employees with a combined 650 years of experience leaving the city and taking their skills and knowledge with them. Of those 23 departures, which accounted for more than 10 percent of the city's full-time employees, 11 were 30-plus-year veterans, including the leader of the experience pack – former police chief Frank Springob, who was a …

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Greenfield Has New Chiefs: Now What?

Newly appointed Fire Chief Jon Cohn and Police Chief Brad Wentlandt talk about the last six months and the future of the departments in a Greenfield Patch Q & A.

They were named interim chiefs on the same day, assumed their interim status together back in June and were appointed chiefs of their respective departments by the Greenfield Police and Fire Commission together Oct. 20. And Fire Chief Jon Cohn and Police Chief Brad Wentlandt plan on working together, and keeping the city safe, for years to come. "Police Chief Wentlandt and I have recognized that we have an opportunity to create synergistic improvements through cooperative opportunities," Cohn said. "Police and fire departments can make single-department service improvements but officer safety, firefighter safety, and community safety significantly improves when emergency services work together." So it was only fitting that Greenfield Patch…

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Commissioners Split on Requiring Psych Exams for Interim Chiefs

Patsy Cashmore says no more time, money should be wasted. Others believe its an important step in the hiring process.

Despite the overwhelming support of their respective departments, their predecessors and city officials, Interim Fire Chief Jon Cohn and Interim Police Chief Brad Wentlandt have one more hurdle to clear in their attempts to be named to their positions permanently. Then again, maybe they don’t. The Greenfield Police and Fire Commission agreed Monday to investigate the procedure and cost of issuing psychological exams to Cohn and Wentlandt, the lead, and at this time the only, candidates to take over as fulltime chiefs of the fire and police departments. If the exams are available at an acceptable price to the commission, Cohn and Wentlandt, both of whom interviewed with the commission Aug. 3, will undergo the tests as soon as possible, …

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Editor's Notebook

OPINION: Choices for Permanent Police, Fire Chiefs Already in Charge

Interim chiefs Jon Cohn and Brad Wentlandt should be named to the positions permanently and quickly.

After calling a special meeting last Wednesday to interview both Interim Fire Chief Jon Cohn and Interim Police Chief Brad Wentlandt - interviews that accounted for a good chunk of the 4 hours of closed session that night - the Police and Fire Commission meets again tonight, this time for regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. in the Law Enforcement Center courtroom. The commission is expected to, at the very least, discuss the selection process of the city's new police and fire chiefs. That discussion could included specific talks about Cohn and Wentlandt, and as the agenda indicates, a decision could be made in regards to how, when and with whom the positions should be filled. From this perspective, it's a no-brainer. Cohn and Wentlandt …

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Springob 'Overwhelmed' at Retirement Celebration

Former Greenfield Police Chief enjoys night with 180 of his closest friends and family members.

In typical Frank Springob fashion, the former Greenfield Police Department chief deflected the heaps of praise given to him, even on a night dedicated to celebrate his 46 ½ years of public service. More than 180 people, including a who’s who in the city, state representatives, friends and family, turned out at Klemmer’s Banquet Center in Greenfield on Thursday to celebrate Springob’s retirement. But when given the chance to address those in attendance, Springob displayed the modesty that led him to be one of the most respected men in the city’s storied history. “As police chief, if there were any errors or omissions, if there were any failures of the department, I’m the one that’s responsible for the past 17 years and I accept that …

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Editor's Notebook

Patch Tour: Where I'll Be This Week

Here is a quick look at where you can find me or other Greenfield Patch folks around town.

The daily Patch Tour is designed for Greenfield Patch to build a sense of community with the residents and businesses of this great city. If you have an event or want me to stop by your business, let me know and I'll do my best to work it into my schedule, and feel free to catch up with me at any of the following events. Let's chat about what Patch can do for you and what I can do to make your Patch experience even better. Tuesday: Rain, rain, stay away for National Night Out. I will have a table set up under the tent just west of the parking lot at Konkel Park. Hopefully, I'll be hard to miss; I'll be wearing my green Patch t-shirt. I'll have Patch fliers, some other promotional items and coloring sheets and crayons for the kids (while …

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Interim Police, Fire Chiefs to be Interviewed by Commission Wednesday

The Greenfield Police and Fire Commission has called a special meeting Wednesday.

Interim Fire Chief Jon Cohn and Interim Police Chief Brad Wentlandt will be the first two candidates to interview for the vacancies created by the June retirements of chiefs Russ Spahn and Frank Springob. Whether or not they are the only candidates interviewed remains to be seen. On Monday, the city released the agenda for a special meeting of the Police and Fire Commission scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at the Law Enforcement Center. According to the agenda, both Cohn and Wentlandt will be given oral interviews in closed session. The meeting comes just five days prior to a regularly scheduled commission meeting slated for 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 8, also at the Law Enforcement Center. Cohn, the former Greendale chief, replaced Spahn …

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