Two run for Iola village president

IOLA – Iola residents will be headed to the polls April 1 to vote for the Iola Village President, the only seat on the board that was challenged during the January caucus.
The two candidates are incumbent Jennifer Schustek and challenger is Mike Richberg.

Jennifer Schustek
Jennifer Schustek was elected to the Iola Village Board as President in April 2021.
Schustek said she was looking for a way to do her part for the community, and being that her children were out of the house and her husband had been a long time volunteer with Iola-Scandinavia sports she decided she wanted to run for a board position.

Schustek left briefly to attend college at the University of Wisconsin – Steven’s Point, earning a degree in communications, with an emphasis on public relations and advertising.
After college, Schustek and her husband decided they wanted to return to Iola to raise a family.
“I’ve grown up in Iola, I know Iola, I’ve loved Iola, that’s why we moved back,” said Schustek.
With her grandmother owning Crystal Café, which came into the family in 1966, she was able to get to know the community.
Currently Schustek said she manages the Crystal Café, while her mother, Judy Bolier, is the current owner.
Her eldest daughter has also stepped into the café to continue in the family business as well as continuing the all female-owned legacy. Her youngest daughter is serving as a naval officer in the U.S. Navy.
Since becoming president of the village board she has coordinated work on the River Walk, the dog park, Chet Krause Legacy Park, as well as a new village sign at Hwy 161 and 49.
Schustek said she has been active in raising money for the American Legion, youth organizations as well as distributing food to families in need.
Some future projects she is hoping to accomplish if she is re-elected is continuing work on the River Walk trail by expanding the trail around Iola or building a trail to connect to Scandinavia, as well as a possible splash pad.
Schustek said she is looking into the future and working on getting grants to help fund projects such as a kayak launch, more work on the Taylor Field boat landing, fixing up Taylor Field, working on playground equipment, possibly a shelter by the River Walk.
“These grants would open up a lot of money,” said Schustek. “We want to have all these amenities without the cost to the taxpayer [or] the village.”
Schustek said she is all about the community, saying her heart is in Iola.
“We’ve got our own police department, our fire department, our ambulance, we have the aquatic center, there’s so many things that this small town offers,” she said. “That’s why I think people love it here.”

Mike Richberg
Richberg moved to the Iola community with his wife in 2020, previous to that he lived in Illinois and was born in Syracuse, New York.

Richberg attended Cornell University, graduating with a degree in agriculture economics.
After college, Richberg said he served in the Army from 1983 to 1994, after which he worked in commercial finance for Wells Fargo where he retired from in 2021.
While living in Illinois they both decided that they wanted to move to Wisconsin, being they both worked remotely they were able to start looking for a new home prior to retirement.
“[My wife] found the house we live in, which had a huge bedroom upstairs, it doubled as our office space and it was perfect,” he said. “Ever since then it was perfect, we love living here.”
Since moving to Iola he has been an active member of the American Legion and joined the Iola Fire Department in 2024.
Richberg said he decided to run for Village Board president because he was asked to; however, he said he had been considering it for the last couple of years.
“If you know me, when people ask for my help, I typically give it,” he said.
Richberg said if he wins the election he wants to focus on community engagement and getting people involved in the government.
“A lot of people don’t come to board meetings because they think they’re not being heard,” he said. “That’s one of the things I wanted to try to bring to the community, is be as open and transparent as possible.”
Richberg expressed an interest in building business in downtown and the workforce in the community if he should win the election.
“I’d like to see Iola become a community where people want to open a business, and grow the town a little bit, and utilize some of the resources we have here now,” said Richberg.
Richberg said his short term plans should he win be learning the new position, then learning what concerns need to be addressed immediately.
Richberg said he would like to make an immediate impact early by finding four to five issues he can address right away.
“I don’t want people to say ‘my voice isn’t heard, nobody cares,’” said Richberg. “This is only my opinion, but there appears to be a disconnect between the village board and the community in and of itself and what I want to do is get people involved again.”