Bishop names new director for Grotto

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
July 10, 2003

WEST BEND - A former native of the West Bend area, Audrey Niemann, daughter of Louis and Elizabeth Kollasch of Whittemore, has come back home to take over as executive director for the Grotto of the Redemption.

Niemann began her new position on July 7, replacing Gerald Streit, who now works part-time in the maintenance and preservation of the Grotto.

The new director brings with her over 21 years of experience working for Time Warner Cable - most recently as the vice president of customer and government relations.

"I was the day-to-day contact for 60-plus municipal authorities across northeastern Wisconsin," said Niemann, who previously lived in Kimberly, Wis., with her husband John and their three children, Catherine, Andrew and Mary Elizabeth. "On the operating side, I had a staff of about 80 folks, and I managed a budget of $3 million.

"My background there also includes a position as vice president of finance for that division, and I've also been a general manager for the company. So I have a very diverse background."

According to Royce Ranniger, a member of the committee in charge of hiring the new Grotto director, Niemann's experience while at Time Warner Cable played a key role in choosing her to fill the position.

"She dealt with customers all the time - knowing how to make the business better, how to attract more business and so forth," said Ranniger, director of operations for the Sioux City Diocese. "These types of things are incredibly important in being the executive director of the Grotto because all she deals with is customers every day, all day, making sure people feel good about going to the Grotto and experience it not only spiritually but everything else that goes with it when they come to the Grotto. So from that perspective, she just brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge."

Niemann, who turns 49 this month, was baptized by Father Louis Greving at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in West Bend. She went to St. Michael Grade School in Whittemore and graduated in 1972 from Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona. Then in 1976, she graduated from Clarke College in Dubuque, where she also met her husband, who attended Loras College.

Since then the couple has moved around a bit as Niemann said she was relocated to different places with Time Warner over the years for progressively more responsible positions. However, over the last couple of years, Niemann said she has been reflecting on what she would like to do with the next 10 to 15 years of her life - something that would draw on her experience - and the position at the Grotto fit the bill.

"This is a setting closer to family, which made it very nice," she said. "I think it also ties to my religious beliefs, and I've been very active in my parish. I think that led me to be very comfortable with the idea of a more day-to-day ministry in the church, which is how I view this."

Niemann said she is very pleased to be part of the Sioux City Diocese again and particularly the Grotto.

"I believe in the mission of the Grotto, which is to present in stone the whole story of our redemption," she said. "So I'm committed to preserving the Grotto so that it may continue to tell a story. I think the Grotto offers so much inspiration to people who visit it."