By Jeremy Scott
The Village of Edgerton has come together this year by collecting and sorting scrap metal with the proceeds going to help Dustin Baker and his family. As you all may know, a tragic fire started in Edgerton in January of this year, claiming the life of Brooke Traxler, and injuring Dustin Baker and their 2-year-old son Hunter. In an effort to help offset some of the medical expenses, the city of Edgerton and its citizens thought outside of the box.
According to Village Administrator Zachary Dohner, “I was initially approached by Mike (Kimpel) to place a trailer/bin behind our Town Hall Building to collect scrap to donate funds 100% to the Baker Family.”
Mr. Dohner and Village Mayor Lance Bowsher approved the request. Soon donations were rolling in ranging from small scrap items to entire cars. At one point the donations were coming in so frequently, that it was a bit of an issue hauling as much as was received.
Then Zach and Mike started talking about having Mike’s crew present during the annual large trash pick-up. The trash was hauled by Republic Services, while the scrap metal would be taken to Edgerton Auto Salvage.
According to Dohner “On the day of the Edgerton large trash pick-up Mike has around 10 people constantly in and out, loading and unloading scrap. Along with Mike’s team, Village employees Kip Pahl, Keith Winebar, Tim Fitzcharles, James Walker, Council President Jason Gruver, the Mayor and I were present to help not only with the scrap collecting, but trash pick-up as well.”
In the end they collected 16,000 pounds of scrap during the pick-up and they donated over $11,000 to the Baker family. Zach noted “Mike and his team did not take out any of their expenses.”
In one final comment Zach stated “as the Village Administrator for Edgerton for a little over a year now, I take great pride knowing our Village has residents like the individuals whom were highly-involved throughout this process.”
Jeremy can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com