February 11

Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 1 CITY OF OCONTO FALLS COMMON COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers – Municipal Building 500 N. Chestnut Avenue - Oconto Falls, WI. 54154 FEBRUARY 11, 2025 – 6:00 pm MINUTES 1. Meeting called to order at 6:00pm by Mayor Clint Braun 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Roll Cal l Present: Aldermen: Marty Coopman, Jeff M cDonald, Tim Holman , Mathew McDermid, Ashley Bahrke, Devin Wirtz Also Present: Mayor Clint Braun, Administrator Peter Wills, Deputy Clerk Jenny Friedman, Street Superintendent Wally Remic, Warren Bluhm with Time Herald, Utility Manager Greg Kuhn, Fire Chief Tim Magnin, Michelle Tester, Dana Remien with Accurate-Assessors, Bart Schindel, Keaton Schultz, Christos Anastasious, James Kardoskee, Bon Arthurs, Carrie Hill, William Tester, 4. Approval of Minutes - Common Council 01.14.2025 MOTION: Holman/McDonald Motion to approve the minutes as presented for the Common Council 01.14.2025. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 5. Treasurer’s Report-December MOTION: Wirtz/Coopman Motion to approve the Treasure’s report for December as presented and placed on file as presented. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 6. Bills Payable – January MOTION: McDermid/Bahrke Motion to approve the Bills Payable as presented for January and place on file. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 7. Reports: Written reports submitted ✓ Administrator Report ✓ Police Department Report ✓ Municipal Court Report ✓ Fire Department Report ✓ Street Department Report ✓ Street Superintendent ✓ Building Inspector Report Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 2 ✓ Library Report MOTION: Wirtz/Bahrke Motion to place reports as presented on file. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 8. OPPORTUNITY FOR CITIZENS TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL - Citizen in-put will be limited to 3 minutes. Carrie Hill gave an update on behalf of New Cap and their application for the Proposed US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was denied. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING: 9. Committee Reports Board of Review N/A Emergency Management Committee Report-N/A Finance Committee N/A Joint Review Board N/A Library Board- N/A Main Street Committee Report N/A Park & Recreation Committee Report-N/A Personnel Committee Report 02.04.25 Planning Commission Report 02.04.25 Ordinance Commission N/A Utility Commission Report 01.20.25 MOTION: Bahrke/ Holman Motion to place reports on file. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED Old Business: 10. WI DOA NEIGHBORHOOD INVESTMENT GRANT- FIRE STATION PROJECT UPDATE Fire Chief Tim Magnin has the grant paperwork finished and is waiting on the Department of Administration for final action. No Action Taken 11. Columbia Street Reconstruction Project Updates The Columbia Street Reconstruction Project is going to be completed from March 2025 through December 2025. Target trees are removed. Letters to citizens were mailed out on January 15,2025 to update the citizens of the construction. On the Oconto Falls Municipal Utility website at https://www.ofmu.org/ there is a detour map also for people to view before the construction starts. The school has also sent out notifications to family about the upcoming construction and detour. Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 3 No Action Taken 12. 2025 Citywide Property Revaluation The last market update for the city of Oconto Falls was in 2018. Dana Remien-Accurate Assessors explained that the city will be going through an Interim Market Update (IMU) this year. There will be notices posted and mailed out for the city residents. The timeline right now is to send notices out around July 11th and Open Book starts on July 30th. Board of Review is September 4,2025. Questions that were asked; ❖ Are properties going to be visited and will you go into the house? - Yes, and city residents can deny the assessor to come in the house. ❖ What is the deadline for the field visits to be done? - End of March. ❖ Do building permits trigger inspections? -Yes, but all properties need to be visited. ❖ Will home owners get a copy of new assessments on their property? – Yes ❖ How will city residents know about everything happening and where are you posting the information? – Property owners will receive mailed letters and there will be postings on the city website, in lobby of city hall and the library, Piggly Wiggly will have some notices. ❖ Will there be enough time for residents to talk with assessors? – Residents will be able to call or email assessor. That information will be listed on the letters sent out. There will also be two open books for people to attend. Walk ins will be taken but an appointment is highly recommended. NO ACTION TAKEN 13. PLANNING COMISSION MEETING ITEMS A. McDermid Park & Allen Purucco, Certified Survey Map Park Allen Perucco has maintained small section of city land since he purchased his property in 1982 adjacent to this city land. He has asked if he can purchase the land from the city. The City agreed to the purchase with Allen Perucco to pay cost of survey and closing cost of sale. MOTION: Wirtz/Bahrke Motion to approve Certified Survey Map for McDermid Park and Purucco. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED B. Derek Konop, merge two lots, 344 S Franklin St, Certified Survey Map Derek Konop would like to combine his two lots. This lot change does work within the city ordinances. MOTION: Wirtz/Coopman Motion to approve Derek Konop, merge two lots, 344 S Franklin St, Certified Survey Map. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 4 C. Application for Zoning Variance Rapid Housing LLC 249 Birch Ave Rapid Housing LLC would like the zoning variance for to place two more homes on open sites. Questions that were brought up; ❖ Are the lots big enough? Yes, the houses will be made to fit on the lot. ❖ In the past has the lots had houses on them? Yes ❖ Was the city’s lawyer asked about this request? - No William Tester had addressed the council with concerns on accepting the zoning variance. Concerns were; ▪ For a standard variance the property owner has to present an unnecessary hardship to council of why the variance should happen. At this time there doesn’t seem to be any unnecessary hardship. ▪ If a trailer was placed in the position, it would be roughly 19.5 feet away from the snowmobile trail. This is because the snowmobilers ride in the right away of the road. Feels this would be an unsafe situation. ▪ The proposed new lot in would not meet the setbacks for front and back yard for the city ordinance. MOTION: Wirtz/ Bahrke Motion to recommend the City Administrator to seek council from the City Attorney on the Zoning Variance Rapid Housing LLC 249 Birch Ave. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED Alderman Coopman abstained from vote D. Bay Lake Regional Plan Commission proposal to update City’s Comprehensive Plan The city is looking to update its Comprehensive Plan. The last Comprehensive Plan was updated in 2008. The city ordinance will also need to be updated to go with the Comprehensive Plan. If the Comprehensive Plan is updated that benefit the city if it was going to work on capital projects and WEDA program. Questions on this were as follows; ❖ How does this benefit the City? There are three key ways for this to benefit the city. The ways are; ➢ If a building owner has a building greater than seventy years old and has not been significantly remodeled in the last twenty years owner may qualify for a up to twenty-thousand-dollar low interest loans to remodel the rooms. ➢ If there is a church or commercial building that could be remodeled into residential that owner may qualify for a low interest loan. ➢ There could be assistance for programs like NEWCAP and other programs that would do low to moderate housing they would assist with. ❖ What is your time line with this to finish? – About eighteen months. ❖ Are these benefits only if the city has comprehensive plan in place? yes MOTION: McDermid/ Wirtz Motion to approve the Bay Lake Regional Plan Commission proposal to update City’s Comprehensive Plan. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 5 14. Oconto Falls School District & City of Oconto Falls Memorial Field Agreement 2025 The Oconto Falls School District and City are in need of updating their Memorial Field Agreement in 2025. MOTION: Bahrke/ Holman Motion to amend the Memorial Field agreement by removing all Oconto Falls Softball Field terms and conditions then proceed to approve the 2025 Memorial Field MOU. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 15. Restrict Truck Traffic on Market Street Street Superintendent Wally Remic brought forth concerns from citizen that there are semi- trucks going down this road and have run on his yard in the past and road is not suited for the semi-trucks. Street Department did place some small post markers on citizens yard to help prevent semi drivers from driving on their yard. MOTION: McDermid/Wirtz Motion to send Restrict Truck Traffic on Market Street to the Ordinance Committee. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 16. Temporary Class B Alcohol Permit Friends of Fire Station hosting Spaghetti Banquet on March 15,2025. MOTION: Wirtz/Holman Motion to approve the Temporary Class B Alcohol Permit Friends of Fire Station hosting Spaghetti Banquet on March 15,2025. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 17. Two-year Operators license approval for Mathew McDermid MOTION: Wirtz/Holman Motion to approve the two-year operator’s license for Mathew McDermid. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED Alderman McDermid abstained from vote. 18. PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MEETING ITEMS A. City 2025-2026 Work Plan City administrator gave an update on what was going on in City Hall with the departments. NO ACTION TAKEN B. Manager’s PTO in lieu of comp time The department head managers do not receive compensation time or overtime when working past forty hours a week. MOTION: McDermid/Bahrke Motion to approve eighty hours of manager time off (PTO) in lieu Compensatory time for Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 6 City Administrator, Police Chief, Fire Department Chief, Street Superintendent, Utility Manager. ROLL CALL: McDermid-aye, Bahrke-aye, Holman-aye, McDonald-aye, Wirtz-aye, Coopman-aye– MOTION CARRIED 19. UTILITY COMMISSION MEETING ITEMS A. MSA Task Order #7 2025 Clean Water Fund & Safe Drinking Water Application MOTION: Bahrke/Holman Motion to approve MSA Task Order #7 2025 Clean Water Fund &Safe Drinking Water Application as presented. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED B. WI DNR EPA Lead and Copper Rule Revision (LCRR)Violation Reporting Kuhn informed the Commission that the State of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sent a violation email to City Administrator Wills. In October, 2024, utilities were required to submit all service line materials on the street and property side. OFMU signed up for a free service provided by the DNR through Jacobs Group. Jacobs Group was supposed to gather the information and create/fill out a spreadsheet for OFMU. When the spreadsheet was returned to OFMU, roughly 200 service lines were identified, and the remaining were left as unknown types. This was not acceptable; OFMU staff reviewed the spreadsheet and submitted it to the DNR on October 16, 2024. Staff did not fill out one section of the spreadsheet where if a service line was unknown, a description needed to be entered stating the service line was unknown. Since this omission put the utility in violation, OFMU had to send out notices to all customers making them aware of the violation. Notices were sent out with the February 2025 bills. The Utility is working on correcting the spreadsheet and will be resubmitting to the DNR so that we can be removed from violation. An updated letter will be sent to customers to let them know we are out of violation when the DNR removes the violation. NO ACTION TAKEN C. Hiring Water Operator/Assistant Wastewater Operator Utility Manager Greg Kuhn was going to present to the council and Utility Commission in 2026 to hire a Water Operator/Assistant Wastewater Operator. The Oconto Falls Municipal Utilities is currently working on a substation and Columbia Street project along with receiving WI DNR EPA Lead and Copper Rule Revision (LCRR)Violation. This has made the need for a Wastewater Operator even more important and urgent to hire now for the Water Operator/Assistant Wastewater Operator. MOTION: Bahrke/Coopman Motion to post and hire for a Water Operator/Assistant Wastewater Operator. Common Council February 11, 2025 Page 7 Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 20. The Committee may go into closed session to discuss matters of employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of public employees pursuant to 19.85 (1)(C) Wis. Stats. A. Re: Contract Negotiation MOTION: McDermid/McDonald Motion to go into closed session at 7:47pm. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED Those remaining in close session were Mathew McDermid, Jeff McDonald, Marty Coopman, Ashley Bahrke, Tim Holman, Devin Wirtz, Mayor Clint Braun, City Administrator Peter Wills, Deputy Clerk Jenny Friedman. 21. The Committee will return to open session and may take action on matters discussed in closed session. A. Re: Contraction Negotiation MOTION: McDermid/Wirtz Motion to go into open session at 7:57pm. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED MOTION: Bahrke/Coopman Motion to approve the Police Chiefs contract negotiations as amended. Voice Vote: All present voting aye - MOTION CARRIED 22. Adjournment Mayor Clint Braun asked if there was any further business before the meeting is adjourned. Having no further business, he declared the meeting adjourned at 7:58 pm. ____________________________ City Administrator Peter Wills