7-13-26 Village Board Meeting — Minutes

Village Board Meeting Minutes July 13, 2026 On July 13, 2026, President Mike Brusberg called the Village Board meeting of the Village of Brooklyn to order at 7:00 p.m. Trustees present were Jake Bachim, Frank Seitler, Christian Allen, Mike Gehrmann, and David Berland. Trustee Todd Klahn was not present. Also present was Clerk-Treasurer Linda Kuhlman. Public Comments – Berland would like ordinance committee/board to consider emulating City of Madison and other cities for increasing fines for setting off fireworks, particularly on non-celebratory days. The fines need to be aimed at the owner of the property, so landlords hold their tenants responsible. It’s irresponsible and awful. Brusberg requested it be passed on to ordinance committee. Berland also suggested then sharing it on social media. President’s Report – Brusberg stated this is the first meeting since updated assessments have gone out. The reason for the material changes people are seeing is, number one, the village triggered reassessment being below a state required ratio several years ago. In 2025 the ratio in Dane County was 59.7% and Green was 59.4% and threshold is typically plus or minus 10%, and we fell below for quite a few years. This will not mean we will have a material increase in taxes, and that will be determined when we do the levy and mill rate. No reason to be fearful of what taxes will be. If you feel your assessment is wrong, those are things you can address through the open book and with the assessor. I know we have open book today, and it will be covered in clerk’s report. Berland asked if we have seen an uptick in complaints since the initial letters. Seitler had a few people ask him. If you look at house values to the north and south, north is about 15-20% more; however, as Oregon expands further south, it’s only going to cause prices in Brooklyn to continue to rise. There’s a house on Elizabeth Circle that’s not being built but pre-marketing at $600,000. They’re seeing the same prices increasing in Evansville. We will be mindful of the budget and people’s taxes. Berland made a motion to approve minutes from June 22. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Bachim abstained. Planning & Zoning Commission – Brusberg stated there was a meeting earlier tonight. One party would like to have sidewalk installed from house to street on S. Kerch Street, with direct access to curb. PZ recommended approval of said sidewalk, and one request was to talk to public works about the curb cut, if they decide to put one in. Gehrmann asked how it would work with parking along the street. Brusberg stated they’re planning to run a daycare and want to directly access it. There’s no other situation like it in Brooklyn. Allen said it needs to be run through public works, if they do curb cut, and needs to be in conformity. Bachim made a motion to approve sidewalk for 200 S. Kerch, for a sidewalk to house to road, curb cut pending public works condition or approval. Allen asked if it would make more sense to have sidewalk go to driveway, or would that be too much sidewalk frontage. Discussion of apron needed at curb and braille plates. Bachim doesn’t think that’s necessary because it’s private sidewalk at this time. Seitler asked if it would be out of line to say a 15-minute parking limit. Allen said we would have to put up signage and striping. He suggested talking to neighbors if it becomes a problem. Berland seconded. Motion carried. Northern Metal Roofing – Brusberg said the recommendation from PZ is conditional approval contingent on conditions expressed by RPS, Strand and public works being met as far as further design. There are questions that each of those three have that aren’t resolved yet. They want to move forward with high level plans, and there was no opposition or lack of support. Allen said they still need to go through zoning and building permits. Brusberg said there’s landscaping, stormwater and a lot to work to go through yet. Bachim made a motion to approve initial structure plans for Northern Metal’s new building with additional details to be approved by public works, Roth and Strand and planning & zoning. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Lot 30 on Second Street – Brusberg stated there were two potential plans submitted. One had a house in front of property and one in the back and a diagram for potentially a third. They did an alternative with each having a dedicated driveway, with the one in back being a long driveway. There’s a desire to have both as ranch, so single story. There would be some zoning issues to work through. Some concerns were having a shared driveway and easements. They will come back on August 3 to PZ and provide updated renderings to RPS, public works and the fire department to get thoughts before coming to PZ. Allen said PZ had a high level recommendation to have two driveways, not a shared, and 20’ minimum road to back, or split lot in the other direction so it matches others in village with narrow, long parcel. The Commission also discussed potential new PZ members. Alcohol operator license – Kuhlman explained we received an application from an operator at Mini-Mart. However, the person has a pending charge of selling without a license. The court case is in September. We think it was more the managers of the store, rather than the individual employee. She asked attorney, and attorney said it’s up to the board. He recommended possibly doing a provisional for 60 days to see what the outcome is of the court case. Our ordinance talks about a 90-day suspension, but nothing that prohibits. Bachim said if not sold to minor, he’s okay with approving. Gehrmann asked if he was charged at one of the other stores by same owner, what else aren’t they doing. Kuhlman will recommend they get the state’s two- year license so their employees can go to other stores. We don’t know exactly what the issue is. Bachim asked about doing a provisional. Brusberg discussed doing provisional, coming back later for full operator, but paying for attorney costs. Bachim said the fee should probably go to owner of store, but how do you do that. Brusberg said morally he has hard time giving full approval, not knowing what happens. Berland thinks it was a license check sting, and he was caught. Bachim said he also lied on the application, because it asks if he's been charged with an alcohol violation. Allen and Bachim said if he lied, we should say no. Allen asked if he can come back and make his case. Kuhlman said yes, she will notify him, and he has a chance to come and appeal it. Bachim said he can reapply and revisit after the court hearing. Bachim made a motion to deny Ramandeep Singh’s operator license application at this time until further review and after court hearing is finished, due to false information on the application. Seitler seconded. Motion carried. Make sure owner knows and sheriff’s department. Brusberg stated the Strand invoice didn’t match the list. Kuhlman stated she must have scanned the wrong invoice. It will be corrected. Brusberg made a motion to approve bills as presented. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Clerk’s report – Financials for June - we had total deposits of $972,619.97, and $851,957 was from sale of the land in the business park. We had total withdrawals of $703,960.50, and $576,289.75 was to pay off the outstanding loan for land in the business park. We ended June with a total in all accounts of $267,205.59. Other financials were handed out. Kuhlman met with Ehlers investment, and she will look at sewer funds and see if there are more funds to move to longer-term investments to get better interest. Food truck night next Tuesday. We have Jolly Frog, Curd Girls, Tom’s Coffee and Beverages, Kona Ice, ice cream truck, and a Puerto Rican truck and another Mexican. Next month we will have a barbeque place, and the pizza truck comes back in September. The Optimist Club will be doing Bingo at food truck nights. We’re working on ADA compliance. The website is set up for ADA, but when we add photos, we now do the alt-text for compliance. Red Cross comes Wednesday for a blood drive, from 10 to 2 pm. Election is coming up. Absentee ballots have gone out and are coming back in. In-person absentee voting starts at the end of the month. There’s pending litigation that might have some effect on the November election. Credit card program is still being looked at. We’re talking to a company working with our software company about integration, and if we do beta testing, it could be free except for maintenance. We also checked with our website company, and they charge a yearly fee. Brooklyn Night Out next month August 18 is getting set up. Vicki and I will be gone for that, but working with fire department and Chamber. Green County and Dane County Sheriffs and fire/EMS will be present. Bachim asked about our newly hired deputy. Kuhlman said she spoke with him last week, and he is going to ask if he can be here for Brooklyn Night Out during training. His official start date is September 14, but he will ask about doing his final training in Brooklyn. He might be able to work Labor Day weekend as well. Highway 14 road closures started last week, and will go until mid-October. Brusberg asked if there’s anything we can do about traffic. Kuhlman said if enough people complain to DOT about the 4-way intersection and Highway 92 and 104, the DOT might do something about it. Next week Friday the clerk’s office will be closed due to vacation and day off. Fire/EMS meeting on Wednesday will have McMann, the consulting company, there to ask questions of anyone interested in responding. Assessments letters have gone out and we had an average increase of about 68%. We had about 13 people today for open book, and objection forms were given to four people. Board of Review is August 26. Ordinance Committee —Kuhlman explained the committee reviewed and recommended changes to a number of ordinances, including Public Nuisance ordinance rewritten by the attorney. The committee discussed a change to plowing sidewalks with vehicles. Bachim said during large snowstorms it’s common to use skid loaders, and they are trying to limit use of excessive vehicles. They suggested any vehicle plated with a DOT plate not to be allowed on sidewalks, except public works vehicles. People can still use skid loaders and things, but it’s to limit pickup trucks that shouldn’t be plowing sidewalks. Brusberg suggested with a fine of $75 and $250, it start after initial warning. Discussion of officer using discretion and also putting it on social media to make sure people are aware of it. Committee will meet again next month. Berland asked about Public Nuisance ordinance Section 24-5 (7), junked vehicles. The ordinance makes it seem like stored in public or private and that is counter to what Deputy Grumke told him. Kuhlman explained if the deputy can see it and make the determination without approaching it, it can be on private or public property. Finance Committee – Brusberg stated they had a meeting on July 8. They recommended establishing an ad hoc community building restoration committee, which would be a citizen led committee to help with what to do with the community building. It includes not only how we think about the building but fundraising to maintain. Bachim asked about putting one trustee on it. Gehrmann made a motion to develop an ad hoc committee for the community building to look into options for restoring and uses and upkeep of the facility. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. There was also a recommendation from finance to merge funds from parks account and recreation account, where decisioning of those funds needs to be approved by the board. There is about $48,000 in the park account and $25,000 in recreation fund. The lines are kind of blurred, but rec is using the parks and a lot of capital items exist in the park. Bachim made a motion to combine the park funds and recreation funds into one account. Berland seconded. Motion carried. Brusberg added one thought in potentially looking at merging funds, is the opportunity to rebrand the recreation committee and make it a parks and recreation committee and potentially lead the committee to be reconstituted. Seitler agreed and says it opens the door for a lot of other opportunities down the road. The finance committee had a question on the public works loader. They had $285,000 listed and $100,000 for trade-in value, and they weren’t sure if the $285,000 was pre or post trade-in value. They are asking for confirmation that it would represent a net of $185,000, based on approximation of trade-in value. We have $300,000 fund balance, and this would be one of the main priorities to tackle. There was a recommendation to approve after following up with public works. Gehrmann said it seems a wise idea while trade-in value is still worth something. Seitler added this is a very important equipment in town and they use it all year round. Bachim made a motion to approve furthering the loader purchase and getting updated quotes from public works. Seitler seconded. Motion carried. Brusberg said the committee talked about a variety of other things but landed on streets and sidewalks and water/sewer lines. Those will be tackled by the water study. Streets and sidewalks, they would like to make a point to focus on and potentially handle that. One, we are in desperate need on S. Rutland and got some updated information around the Highway 104 project. There’s a lot happening to not tie into different projects. Gehrmann asked if we put sidewalks in and fix sewer and water and we don’t do curb, does that hurt us. Bachim said if sewer and water we lay is not in the spot they want, it could be a problem. They can talk with people, to say it should be good here, but there’s still a chance of duplication. Do we go with full- width sidewalks, etc. Brusberg suggested sending a letter to all state reps about the issue and see if there’s a way to make this more of a near-term priority. We have aging infrastructure. Because it continues to get kicked down the road, it puts us in an awful position. Discussion. Berland made a motion to advance the sewer/water/street project for S. Rutland, moving it forward by sending it for conceptual study to Strand so we can start fixing it. Seitler seconded. Bachim abstained. Brusberg stated we want to survey residents regarding sidewalk replacement. On election day, as long as we’re not surveying people directly in the election area and about elections, we could survey electors about sidewalks. Berland very strongly believes residents shouldn’t have to pay individually, and we should tax everyone so everyone in the village can use all sidewalks. We could simply have a sidewalk fund to tap into and replace the sidewalks. Normal wear and tear would be on village, but any misuse would be on the resident. Allen said it is common practice to have the owners pay for the sidewalks. Berland disagrees with that. Gehrmann said we’re in a unique position with having older sidewalks, some places with none, some sidewalks all chewed up, and new sidewalks, it would be great to get people’s input and get a large crowd to survey and find out what they’re looking for. Berland made a motion to survey residents on how they think this community should handle and pay for sidewalks. Allen asked about putting it on utility bills. Kuhlman said it could be shared and get more than just residents responding. Bachim suggested having a QR code at the election but also have hard copies. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Brusberg suggested getting Ehlers reengaged when we have more information on what we’re going to be doing. Recreation Committee – Seitler said they didn’t have enough people show up to have a meeting. They did send an email for a meeting next month and asked for confirmation if attending or not attending, and as of right now, it looks like everybody said they would be there next month. August 12 is the next meeting at 5:30 p.m. He’s very passionate about trying to get more public interaction for the village. He can remember a time coming to board meetings and you were lucky if you could find a place to sit because people cared. Bachim made a motion at 8:48 pm to adjourn. Berland seconded. Motion carried. Linda Kuhlman, WCMC, CMTW Clerk-Treasurer