Mark Janiuk: Excited About Caledonia, Sad to Leave Sturtevant

Pending the approval of his contract at the Caledonia Village Board meeting on Tuesday, Mark Janiuk will be Caledonia’s next administrator.

Janiuk, currently the Sturtevant Village Administrator, replaces Tom Lebak, who is retiring. The tentative plan is for Janiuk to start work on July 23. He hasn't officially given notice, he says. But he will after the Village Board approves the contract.

“I’m excited about coming to Caledonia, but I’m also a little sad about leaving Sturtevant,” Janiuk said.

Janiuk has been Sturtevant's village administrator since 2006. Before that he spent 25 years in the Racine County Corporation Counsel, and when Caledonia was a town he worked as Caledonia’s zoning administrator. The staff working for the Village of Sturtevant has been reduced from 35 to 17 full-time positions and Janiuk works part-time in response to those cuts.

“I was looking for a new challenge and a bigger community,” Janiuk said. “I also liked the idea that Caledonia has a lot more open space than Sturtevant does.”

He was attracted to Caledonia’s potential with economic development, but he also has an eye on preserving the Village’s natural resources.

“Like the Root River, that’s a beautiful asset to the community, and we can build on those assets to attract people to the community,” he said. “We can’t forget about those assets.”

With that said, he’s not coming in with pre-conceived ideas. He believes that the residents and Village Board need to decide how much development and where that development should take place.

Over Janiuk’s career, he’s also had an eye on the community’s finances, but also on economic development.

 “We’ve been able to find efficiencies and reduced the size of government here,” he said. “We’ve consolidated health departments, combined our dispatch centers to become a joint dispatch center and combined our fire department with Mount Pleasant to become the South Shore Fire Department.”

Janiuk points to his work on several key development projects including, the expansion of Ruud Lighting; and the development of the Renaissance with Bombardier Recreational Products, the Sturtevant Sports Complex and bringing in Dental Associates.

The transition from Sturtevant, which Janiuk calls a more urban center, to Caledonia, which boasts a more rural character, won’t be difficult. Both Villages use the same law firm for union contracts and the same zoning administrator. Their fire departments work closely together through mutual aid and they both use the Racine County Joint Dispatch Center. Both Villages are also part of the Central Racine County Health Department.

When Janiuk starts his new post, he’ll need to get a handle on the Village’s budget and their direction.

“I believe that you learn a lot with discussion with the Board,” he said. “You learn about their goals, their budget and their plans. You get familiar with people and you are carrying out the direction the board has… You always work as a team.”