Republican Diana Biddle will serve another four years as county commissioner after defeating Democratic challenger Kyle Birkemeier.

Biddle received 3,975 votes to Birkemeier’s 3,102.

“I’m excited for another four years,” Biddle said after taking a deep breath and a seat at a table in the Seasons Lodge and Conference Center.

“I see it as a referendum on my accomplishments for the last four years. I definitely see it as a referendum on Maple Leaf (Performing Arts Center). I see it as a referendum on the county highway work we’ve been doing, the improvements, the capital improvement with the radio tower. I had a lot of people ask me questions about that,” she said.

Biddle was a member of an ad hoc committee that was formed to start discussing the possibility of building a new music venue in the county. That venue — later named the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center — is set to open next summer and will seat 2,000 people.

That ad hoc group created a plan to finance and build the venue before making a public announcement at the Brown County Playhouse last June.

The commissioners also approved a contract in September to build a new radio transmission tower using money from a $2 million capital improvement bond. The new tower will help cover holes in radio coverage that emergency responders experience in the northern part of the county.

“I don’t like big changes, but I think if we keep doing what we’ve done in the past, then we’re going to continue to decline, and the only way out of that decline is to make some bold moves. I made several bold moves over the last four years — moves that I knew could potentially cost me a re-election, but I believe they were the right moves to make,” Biddle said.

“I look forward to another four years.”

The local Democratic Party also held their post-election celebration in the basement of the Seasons Lodge.

Kyle Birkemeier was there monitoring the votes as they came in.

“Obviously, I’m saddened I didn’t win, but honestly, I’m encouraged that so many people voted. Sad they voted straight-ticket and I think really what happened tonight was I won the informed elector vote and the straight-ticket vote probably went to the one with the right letter by their name,” he said.

“I hope that the county government doesn’t take this as a referendum to continue on the path that they’re on, because Brown County is facing record debt, incredibly high taxes, and we need to do something to turn that around. I am going to continue to be involved. I’m not giving up.”

Birkemeier said he will continue to try and serve on the Salt Creek Trail Committee when it starts to meet again, “so we can finish that project and get it done without using any more eminent domain, and do it under budget, because we’re facing some serious budget issues, especially with the money they paid out to get the land,” Birkemeier said.

He began speaking out in public meetings about the Salt Creek Trail last fall. “I have great experience, and I would like to get involved to get that done and work with Diana Biddle who obviously ran a good campaign and beat me.”

Biddle said Birkemeier had a “great campaign.”

“The feedback I received personally is that the constituents did not like the negativity. I refuse to be negative. I wish him well,” she said.

“We need to be challenged, and Kyle did that. He challenged me to think about a lot of things, and that’s not always bad.”

Birkemeier congratulated Biddle on her win.

“I hope that you listen to the people and act in ways that will benefit this community,” he said. “I hope the other people who have won today also do that.”

Read more in next week’s Democrat.