Glaciers carved this valley an inch at a time, and that is how good government works: steady, patient, and out where everyone can see it. I serve on the Cross Plains Finance Committee to keep our village's money working for the people who live here.
Cross Plains sits where the last glacier stopped. That is the kind of force I believe in for our village: not loud, not sudden, but steady, transparent, and lasting. Big change here doesn't come from big speeches. It comes from showing up to the meeting, reading the budget line by line, and explaining every decision in plain language to the people paying for it.
Every one of these passes through the same three questions: what does it cost, what does it return, and who does it serve.
Your tax dollars, spent in the open. Balanced budgets, published numbers, and no surprises when the assessment letter arrives.
Law enforcement, fire, and EMS funded to the standard our families expect, with regional partnerships that stretch every dollar.
Roads, water, and utilities maintained before they fail, because deferred maintenance is the most expensive line item there is.
A main street where local businesses can open, grow, and stay. Growth that pays its own way.
Room for young families and longtime neighbors alike, with planning that respects the character of what's already here.
Care for the creek, the springs, and the glacial landscape that gives this village its name and this site its own.
Partnership with our schools and real opportunities for kids to grow up engaged here, not just near here.
Parks, trails, and local events that every resident can reach and afford.
Access to care, and a village built so the healthy choice is the easy one.
Government you can walk up to. Ask me anything at the meeting, in the driveway, or by email.
A budget vote is easy to cast and hard to cast well. These are the rules I hold myself to, learned the honest way: in the middle of real decisions like our EMS district discussion.
Financial data needs context: what service, for whom, compared to what alternative. A number without its story is how villages make expensive mistakes.
Input comes before the vote, not after. If residents first hear about a decision when it's final, the process failed even if the decision was right.
Regional partnership usually beats going it alone. When our four-village EMS district hit rising costs, the problems didn't require leaving the partnership. They required improving it.
If I can't defend a vote in plain language at your kitchen table, I shouldn't cast it.
Our four-municipality EMS partnership hit rising costs and an uneven cost-sharing formula, and some argued for leaving it. The numbers said otherwise: fix the agreement, keep the collaboration, and get the cost-sharing structure right. What I learned about financial context, community input, and why regional partnerships earn their keep.
Ask me about it →A short note when something worth your attention happens at the village level: budgets, votes, and the reasoning behind them. No politics in your inbox, just the numbers and the why.
Born in Milwaukee, home in Cross Plains since 2019. My wife, our two sons, and our two beagles, Lucky and Merlyn, live on Glacier Circle, which may explain the name of this site. My day job is running technology and budgets as an executive for large companies; that's the experience I bring to the Finance Committee. In 2025 I decided that caring about this place from the sidelines wasn't enough, so I got to work.
Paul Barth · 2060 Glacier Circle, Cross Plains, WI 53528 · paul@glacialforce.org. Short videos and meeting recaps are on YouTube.
YouTube · @PaulBarth1337 →