Town Board Meeting — Minutes

AMBERG TOWN BOARD MEETING Community Center – Tuesday February 13, 2024 6:00 pm Chairman Sagan called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm with all board members present and 26 citizens present. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and Chairman Sagan opened the floor to the citizens. Ron Magley apologized to Tilly for the behavior at the Fire Dept meeting. He also thanked Mark Wisnewski for hooking the Girl Scouts up with Otto to make the free library. He donated all the wood and time. The girls bought the paint out of their own money and when done they will be putting something in the paper. The approval of the clerk’s minutes as read by the board was motioned by Supervisor Magley and seconded by Supervisor Campbell. Lisle Suzawith read the treasurer’s report. The interest earned in 2023 for the General M/M was $913.79 and Tax M/M was $4,590.15. The current cash on hand in our General M/M is $27,446.56 and our Tax M/M $723,521.04. Checking account is $21,953.15 and the Equipment CD is $252,176.55. The Park and Rec savings account is $1,890.00. Tax collections are now complete. Supervisor Campbell made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report and Supervisor Magley seconded it. Fred Smeester gave the planning commission committee report. The purpose of the meeting was to continue to come up with better road specs for new town roads. After about an hour of discussion a plan to make the roadbed better, and not cost too much, was decided on. The chair will write it up for the commission to look at next month. The Fire Department got first half from the town and they have $140.00 left after truck repairs. The Parks and Rec were at the meeting to offer their support for the brat fry and got shot down. Supervisor Magley brought up that the fire dept has to get better and was approached as to why a certain person was not offered the assistant chief. We need to get better at working together and community support. Wausaukee Rescue report is on file in the clerk’s office. Mark said everything was going good until the Town of Wagner decided that they wanted to pull out of the partnership with the Town of Wausaukee, Village of Wausaukee and the Town of Amberg . They feel that the service out of Marinette would save them money. Sara Pullen from the Village of Wausaukee has asked that people from the other communities attend the Town of Wagner meeting on Wednesday night to show support for keeping the Town of Wagner in the partnership. The road department has been doing maintenance, scraping roads, got them looking good, equipment maintenance. Ron is working on an ARIP grant and will be working with an engineer to get the paperwork done. It’s going to be a 2 million dollar project and will be just like the highway with 5” blacktop and no road limits on it. Chairman Sagan explained that we would only be paying $200,000 of the $2 million. It is a grant made for small towns. Ron is hoping that NE Asphalt can do it. The Parks and Rec Dept tilled up the ball diamond and they will need help in spring with the pavilion and to get the concession stand ready because there will be ball practice starting on April 15th and games will be ready to start on May 13th. If the ball diamond is ready they will be scheduling games. They are looking for another coach to help out. Also, have to look at the equipment to make sure it is usable. Paul Kautenburg thanked the board for giving them a chance with the Parks and Rec dept and it has grown in the past 8 mos. He also acknowledged Noah and Amanda Shaw for the open gym on Wednesday and the community for their support and the Magley family for being the key in getting baseball back in Amberg. He then showed the citizens some drawings of their vision for the ballpark, pavilion and playground along with restrooms and storage. They are working on a large grant and some other smaller ones to pay for these things so we don’t have to use any taxpayers’ money. They are having a craft fair and bake sale on May 4th and encouraged the community to come out and also looking for volunteers to bring baked goods to sell. There is no more HSA and Clerk Ducat is looking into health insurance for Shawn Jr and a retirement account for both town employees. We would like to get the retirement through the state of Wisconsin. She is waiting for some callbacks regarding the health insurance. The LED lights were installed and they will be returning to fix the front light by the front door and the one by the kitchen door. Chairman Sagan then contacted WPS about changing the street lights to LED and they said it would take about 4 months and they completed it already. It is supposed to save us $700 to $900 a year. The shop is bright now with the new LED lights. We will be getting a website. The cost to get it started is $2615.00 of which we had an anonymous donation of $1615.00 and then yearly at $1815.00 to cover the hosting, maintenance and unlimited support. The new website would be easier to navigate and also allow citizens to subscribe to updates on the website. It would also be a .gov so it will be secure. She thanked Tilly Wollenburg for helping to get this started. Supervisor Magley made a motion to approve the new website and Supervisor Campbell seconded it. The guys when out in the grader can’t talk to each other unless they use their cellphones. They would like to get a radio for the grader that would cost $562.38. Supervisor Magley made a motion to get the radio and Supervisor Campbell seconded it. We would like to start crack sealing the roads and we got an estimate for 2 skids of tar blocks for $2925.00, freight is $237.50 and rental per day is $525.00. Supervisor Magley made a motion to try it and Supervisor Campbell seconded it. The crew would like to try new blades for the plow trucks in the amount of $3211 or $3300 per truck to be able to plow the roads better. After some discussion the blades for the plows will be tabled until fall. Dama wants $1365.00 for maintaining the furnaces, etc for spring and fall. Right now they are charging everytime they come in and also for the parts. If we sign the contract with them we will get 10% off of parts if there is something wrong when they come to look at them. If they come twice a year there is less chance of something going wrong with them. Chairman Magley made a motion to sign the contract and Supervisor Campbell seconded. Jacob Stangel of Up North Living WI and the landlord for the post office would like to have the sidewalk in front of the post office replaced as they received a notice from the area postmaster. If it is not fixed he loses rent and possibly the loss of having a post office in Amberg. He offered two options. Option #1 would be to have the town replace it and Option #2 He would help with it. He needs a a written letter stating it is the town’s responsibility to get it fixed. Clerk Ducat will get a letter out to him by Friday. Supervisor Magley would like the town crew to use equipment inspection books and fill them out on a daily basis. That way the equipment can be fixed right away and will cover them in case of an accident that the equipment was kept up with maintenance. Anytime they use the vehicle they need to fill them up when it goes out and comes back in. The board went into closed session for employee accountability. Supervisor Magley made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Supervisor Campbell seconded it. The meeting was adjourned at 6:47 pm.