NEW BERLIN – After initially advocating for her opponent, the incumbent of New Berlin’s mayoral race hopes to keep her seat in a write-in campaign.

Village Trustee Wade Schrag will appear as the sole mayoral candidate on the Village of New Berlin’s ballot Wednesday, but current Mayor Carol Riley has rescinded her earlier decision to retire and launched a write-in campaign.

Riley originally helped to gather the 50 local signatures needed for Schrag’s petition, which aided in placing him on the ballot in the first place.

The two candidates’ falling out began with a debate over the village’s decision to sell 10 acres of an athletic park, Fish Field, to Milford Academy for $46,000.

“I did not take out a petition because I was at that time ready to retire. I decided that I really need to run because of the Milford situation, and because I am already in the process of trying to acquire a grant to improve the village’s infrastructure and water system,” said Riley, who has been mayor for the last 14 years.

“I chose to run for village mayor this term, because I feel I can work with the rest of the village board members to improve our community for everyone, and bring some much-needed change to our village,” said Schrag, who has been on the village board for the past seven years and served as deputy mayor in 2008.