Walworth County Land Conservation Committee welcomes Michael Bergman as citizen representative

The Walworth County Land Conservation Committee on June 16 welcomed Michael Bergman as its new citizen representative, Chair Bridal Holt said during the committee’s 1 p.m. meeting.

Bergman replaces Sharon Travis as the citizen representative and said the appointment follows state-level changes related to Farm Service Agency (FSA) appointments that the committee and county supervisors pursued to ensure farmer representation. "This is the first appointment after the whole issue with all the FSA stuff," Bergman said, urging the committee to preserve an agricultural voice.

Bergman told the committee that the change came after cross‑party work at the county and state level; he cited Supervisor Shutt’s earlier involvement in pursuing that change. He said the county’s composition changed when the county board shrank from 35 supervisors to 11, and that made maintaining agricultural representation on a small committee more important. "I just wanna highlight that because I think that's a a really great example of this committee recognizing a change was needed at the state level and pursuing... to ensure that the farmer's voice was on this committee," Bergman said.

Chair Bridal Holt formally introduced Bergman to the committee and invited him to speak; Bergman thanked the committee for the appointment. Committee members offered a brief welcome and the meeting moved on to other agenda items.

The record at the meeting shows no separate motion or roll-call vote recorded in the transcript for the appointment during this session; the transcript records a welcome and Bergman's introductory remarks but does not specify an official vote during the June 16 meeting.