Thomas Spenner of Hillsboro was elected Vernon County Board Chairman and James Servais of the Town of Hamburg the new Vice-chairman by their fellow board members at the board,s organizational meeting, Tuesday.

The county board room at the courthouse had the feel of a National Football League draft "war room" as 12 new board members took office and voting to fill leadership and committee slots went on longer then expected. Long pauses in the action to collect ballots and huddles of board members whispering about what they expected to happen gave the room the draft day feeling.

The voting for chairman and vice chairman went smoothly with Spenner edging Orvis Primmer and Todd Overbo on the second ballot with 20 votes. Servais beat out Richard Hansen for the vice-chair spot.

Then things got interesting.

The next order of business was to fill all of the seats on four committees that are required to be elected by statute. Those committees are Agriculture-Extension and Land Conservation, Highway, Human Services and Vernon Manor. Board rules state that the board votes until there is a majority for one candidate. Once there is a majority the board votes to approve and then another seat is filled until all the seats are filled. With some committee seats having eight or more candidates the vote kept getting split so many ways it was nearly impossible to get a majority on any one candidate.

One seat on the land conservation committee took five votes and then there was still a tie and one of the candidates withdrew their name to speed things up. That candidate later was elected to a different seat on the same committee.

The board members elected to those committees are as follows:

The Highway Committee: Jo Anne Nickelatti (I) to the western district, Jerry Cade to the central district, Jack Robinson (I) to the eastern district, Harry Baller (I) and A. Richard Brose were elected to two at large seats;

The Agriculture-Extension and Land Conservation Committee Will Beitlich, Judy Wilmes (I), Herbert Cornell, Orvis Primmer (I) and Richard Hansen. Beitlich had previously served on the committee as a citizen member;

The Human Services Committee Robert Johnson and Chet Lee fill three-year terms, Sherman Erlandson fills a one-year term and Donald Ehlers is elected as a citizen member. Ehlers and Lee were both prior citizen members.

To the Vernon Manor Board of Trustees Ray Moser (I) and Ole Yttri will serve three-year terms.

Spenner will appoint board members to a number of other committees.