(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
SOMERS, Wis. — The Danish Brotherhood Lodge No. 14 of Kenosha has filed a lawsuit against the Village of Somers, alleging the municipality improperly denied the organization a property tax exemption and unlawfully levied more than $16,000 in taxes on its property.
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 27 in Kenosha County Circuit Court and seeks to recover property taxes the lodge says should never have been assessed. The nonprofit fraternal organization argues its property qualifies for a full exemption under Wisconsin law because it is owned and used exclusively for benevolent and fraternal purposes.
The Danish Brotherhood Lodge, located at 1300 Sheridan Road, operates as a 501(c)(8) fraternal beneficiary society. According to the complaint, the organization provides benefits to members such as aid during illness, disability, or death, scholarships, and charitable programs. The lodge also offers free or reduced-rate use of its banquet hall for weddings, memorial services, and benefit events, with any revenue reinvested into member services and charitable activities.
The lodge purchased the Somers property on Dec. 29, 2023 and has used it as a meeting hall and storage facility for members and their families. Under Wisconsin law, property owned and used exclusively by benevolent or fraternal organizations for charitable purposes may qualify for a property tax exemption.
According to the complaint, the lodge submitted a 216-page property tax exemption request to the Village of Somers in January 2024. Lodge officials allege village staff mishandled the application by treating it as a sales tax exemption request and failing to forward it to the municipal assessor, resulting in an improper denial.
The organization says it again submitted a property tax exemption application in January 2025, but the village denied the request and issued a tax bill for the property.
Village records cited in the complaint show the property was assessed at $1.2 million. After credits, the net property tax totaled $15,365.13, along with an additional $723.44 special charge related to Somers utilities, bringing the total amount owed to $16,088.57.
Court filings indicate the lodge paid the first installment of the tax bill — $8,406.01 — on Jan. 6, 2026 while continuing to challenge the assessment.
On Jan. 15, the lodge filed a claim with the village seeking recovery of what it described as an unlawful tax. Village officials denied that claim on Feb. 4, 2026, prompting the organization to file the lawsuit within the 90-day period allowed under Wisconsin law.
In the complaint, the lodge maintains the property meets all statutory requirements for exemption and that no portion of the building is leased or used for unrelated commercial activity.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the Village of Somers to refund $15,365.13 in property taxes, along with the $723.44 utility charge if it is deemed part of the unlawful levy. The lodge is also seeking interest, costs, and other relief the court deems appropriate.
The case has been assigned to Kenosha County Circuit Judge Angelina Gabriele.
33 Responses
George Stone needs to go corrupt
Hope Judge Angelina Gabriele does the right thing
How do the idiots in the village office not understand simple exemptions to property tax laws ?
These “village office employees” one Effen Job is to understand government processes and how they relate to every property in the village !
These people need to be fired !!!
But the only way to fire Stoner is at the polls !
And that, people, is on every resident of Somers !!!
How you continually allow this person to represent you and lead your village is shameful.
Even worse than Salem
And a lot longer than Salem too !
Well, the time to step up was in Dec/Jan, not on election day.
…the problem with this guy is not new !
This guy is a train wreck yet he’s still there !
Apathy is a real word. Look it up
the first sign was going from a town to a village, headed by this boso, people should have known then
Can some of the folks in SOMERS step up and change leadership, but of crybabies with no action. Ugh
Isn’t he part of the group that spoke on TV about how today the speed limit changed on Sheridan ?? Everyone in that part couldnt answer questions truthfully. Just wait until yall find out what the whole point of the speed limit being reduced was all about……..$$$$$$$$ more money for Somers and let’s talk a lot of it
How is Somers getting more $$$ from that? KCSO doesn’t do traffic enforcement. People can do whatever speed they want, virtually anywhere in the county, without any sort of consequence.
Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, Let’s Go Racing!
Obviously you rarely travel this road. Make it a point to regularly speed down this road and see what happens.
Do the research on it. Think critically. This rabbit hole is deep. Its all connected to more revenue and fattening wallets of the so called leaders
It was lowered supposedly for safety reasons, yet in Racine County the limit is still 45mph. Why would that be?
In Racine County there are very few cross streets and driveways. It is also a divided highway.
That whole board needs a overhaul. King George needs to go. With this water deal the board approved that themselves with no public meeting they said they were going to have in Jan. King George is corrupt he learned from Bill Morris. Now 1.3 million for that fire department. What are they thinking. I dairy in jackson county now and glad I’m not in that loser village. Hope more people step up to these pieces of shit and shed light on what they’ve done to people. I lost 180,000 dollars because of stoner. Had my well polluted and turned my yard into a swamp because they let Randy’s landscaping do what he wanted. Somers was warned in 2004 about the impact to my property. They didn’t give a shit. So here we are 2026. Still the same shit goes on. Get stoner the he’ll out of there. Look what happened across the street from shoreland that was the lichter homestead Morris funneled all that water into that field at the bottom the topsoil is gone. Somers should have been sued then. The DNR should have stepped in but nope. Somers is playing with fire doing the things against their own residents.
Let Randy’s Landscaping do what they wanted where? Be more specific.
Kevin was going to run for the village pres. Stoner had Ben Harbaugh run to take votes away from Kevin.
The property he ruined at 1226 80th Ave.
The guy stained my well with his colored mulch. The well got polluted and is documented at the water testing lab in Madison. He collapsed 10 feet of my foundation. Turned my front yard into a swamp. Somers and kenosha did nothing. I was lied to from people that I thought were friends through my dad. That whole board needs to go.
Did you sue him and township? Talk to your neighbors on this. The only way to sue corruption is doing toegther.
Tried too no lawyer would take it. Neighbors in somers. That’s a laugh. All I got was that’s your problem. Screw somers. I dairy farm in jackson county. No more somers for me. My family owned the property for 126 years. Smh.
Since I can remember Somers has always been corrupt. Anybody remember Howard Blackmon. Guy was a lier. That board needs to go.
George Stoner on every Saturday morning with the must corrupt individuals. 1. Pat Juliana (former alderman) school board candidate. Super corrupt guy. I worked with Pat. He’s one of the most dishonest person I know.
Another is 2. Matt Augustine. When I was involved in a Republican party he’s another super dishonest individual. All three of them have coffee.
George. You know what they say. If you hang around with people at limp pretty soon you can start limping. Lol
Another RPKC failure. Stoner should have been another easy one to beat, but they didn’t put a solid (C) up against him.
The reasons to show that party leadership the door are everywhere— Vote Ellen. Let Sandy take that gut punch and crawl into a hole, and let someone who cares about Conservative Republicans in Kenosha County take the reins.
The property he ruined at 1226 80th Ave.
The guy stained my well with his colored mulch. The well got polluted and is documented at the water testing lab in Madison. He collapsed 10 feet of my foundation. Turned my front yard into a swamp. Somers and kenosha did nothing. I was lied to from people that I thought were friends through my dad. That whole board needs to go.
Kevin was going to run for the village pres. Stoner had Ben Harbaugh run to take votes away from Kevin.
Ben Harbach has been involved with Somers politics in one form or another since before Kevin was born. The idea that Stoner had Ben run to steal votes from Kevin is retarded.
Somers makes the Prairie look like the Vatican.
Prairie is the worst of the worst!!! Nobody can see the real books!!! Think Steinbrink for real greed and power!
Pleasant prairie is so corrupt. Those guys are still running. Pay attention people who’s on the plan commission. Mike P. Still involved as a trustee. Just internal corruption
Well that’s what stoner did. Came right from an employee I know that works for the village. Think stoner wouldn’t do that. He did!
The same employees that can’t figure out simple property tax appeals? Those nitwit employees?
The solution to all of life’s problems !
This unlawful tax should be struck down by the court. Precedent for their tax exemption was set long before the old Danish Brotherhood was burned during the summer of love. The organization moved to a location that should be safe from future violence only to become the victim of an unfair tax burden.
The Village and Town are out of control. Hiring a third party to pretend to do a survey, then ramrodding the prefabricated results down the throats of residents by telling us we won’t have timely fire or paramedic responses by way of repeat mailings is gross. Then, to push for low income apartment housing, which will only cause the need for emergency services to increase — while the rest of us are expected to pay for it by way of a property tax increase. Stoner needs to go like ten years ago. The staff is rude and so much of what they do is questionable. Please vote NO on April 7th (property tax increase to pay for Stoner’s selling out of our community).