The District 5 county supervisor has become a bit of a running gag in this age. Calling Wyndham Manning a “yeti” and “the invisible man” may not have been nice, but for the last two years, the material he has given us has been more comical than legislative.

That’s not to say Manning hasn’t gotten anything done during his reign, but when your crowning achievement is the Forward Music Festival, people tend to question whether county board is relevant to students and if students are relevant to county board.

The answer on both counts is an unequivocal yes.

Although bringing county board to students may seem like a monumental task for Analiese Eicher (a College Dem) and Michael Johnson (a Progressive Dane member), the two current candidates running for Manning’s soon-to-be vacant seat, there are already several county-level issues begging for student involvement.

Chief among these is the Regional Transit Authority. Approved by the county board last semester, this governing board will begin exploring different options for mass transportation in greater Dane County, such as bus rapid transit and light rail, to better link Madison and its surrounding communities. Students naturally have a vested interest in what this project looks like as it moves through campus. Moreover, with the loss of the Greyhound station downtown, links between the city and other transportation options like the airport, the Amtrak station in Columbus or the MegaBus stop would be extremely important to out-of-state students.

Outgoing supervisor Manning touched on some of these issues in a blog post, but that was a year ago, and we have heard little since. As the RTA begins to pick up steam, Manning’s successor must make sure student interests are well represented. Here, the impact of county board on students’ lives is obvious, and anyone who has an interest in bus routes, bike trails or the future face of Madison transportation has a reason to care about this race.

Furthermore, county board deals extensively with environmental issues. Even if only one in 10 people with aluminum water bottles really do care, that’s still plenty of students who should want to make sure county board is tuned in to their interests. Wyndham’s idea for manure digesters was a fair start and one that has gained traction in Waunakee and Middleton, but it’s a punchline to uninformed students. Students must know the Board of Supervisors has the power to protect Dane’s land, air and water, not just get rid of cow shit.

Still other areas, such as care of the homeless, destitute and mentally ill, lie at least partially in the hands of Dane County. For groups like WISPIRG, who care strongly about such issues (trust me, I’ve seen the letters to the editor), county board offers another level at which to address the problem. Dane County would be a valuable and willing (as Kathleen Falk indicated in a conversation with The Badger Herald last year) ally in the fight against homelessness. The critical first step will come in this spring election.

Lost somewhere in the shuffle of campus, city and state politics has been Dane County. It doesn’t have a gorgeous capitol building, nor does it get to decide liquor licenses, but nevertheless, county board deals with many issues students care deeply about. Not only our interests, but also those of the causes they advocate, as well as the county at large, would benefit from greater student input. The first step toward such a brave new world will come later this spring, but stride must begin now.

Joe Labuz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering.