5-11-26 Village Board Meeting — Minutes

Village Board Meeting Minutes May 11, 2026 On May 11, 2026, President Mike Brusberg called the Village Board meeting of the Village of Brooklyn to order at 6:30 p.m. Trustees present were Mike Gehrmann, Frank Seitler, Christian Allen, and Jacob Bachim. Trustees Todd Klahn and David Berland were absent. Also present were Troy Larson and Nathan Taylor from Strand, Wendy Flanagan from Green County, Chris and Amanda Shippee, Tom Eithun, Justin and Kaley Litchfield, Public Works Director Leif Spilde, Clerk-Treasurer Linda Kuhlman. Pledge of Allegiance. Convened into public hearing 6:30 p.m. – Troy Larson from Strand introduced himself and Nathan Taylor. They walked through the plans for the plant. Disinfection requirements are new and they were here to talk about the plan. It has to do with how the DNR has classified streams. There are only 80 plants, including Brooklyn, that are not disinfecting. The village operates under a WPDES permit, and we had ours reissued on October 2024 with a compliance schedule. That set a timeline to construct a facility for disinfection, so we needed to do a facilities plan so the DNR knows that we put the due diligence into looking to do the upgrade. It will require DNR approval. We cannot operate without the disinfection upgrade. There is an aerial photo of treatment plant. He walked through the map. The first stop after being pumped is the BPR. It goes from there to the oxidation ditch to allow other aerobic activities. We will grow bacteria in that tank, then it flows to final clarifier, and bacteria falls to bottom and secondary effluent and then to Allen Creek. The bacteria on the bottom is brought back into the system to treat wastewater and 10% to the sludge storage tank where they are sent to agronomic land. Nathan Taylor said the driver is the disinfection. They evaluated chorine disinfection and UV disinfection. You have to provide 30 minutes of contact for chlorine to kill pathogens, so tanks are pretty large. You have to have a dichlorination chemical to make it inert. The other they evaluated was UV disinfection where there are bulbs and specific wavelength of light that deactivates the pathogens in the wastewater. It’s a widely accepted and historied disinfection technology. UV disinfection was selected. It’s a component of a larger system. He went through what it would look like. While UV is more recent than chlorine, it’s been around for decades. Madison Met, Stoughton, Janesville and New Glarus have it. It will connect to existing piping, through UV and then back to existing piping. There were a few others they recommended. Most is from 2008, so it’s in pretty good condition. He went through map of what is at the plant. With treatment plant being smaller, there’s only one treatment unit going through the process, so if you have a motor or gear box, it will reduce the amount of potential downtime. Last is to relocate the influent sampler. By relocating to top of BPR tank, it can reduce the wear, and currently that’s a frequent maintenance item. DNR compliance schedule was walked through. The draft plan was submitted to DNR, and the next deliverable to DNR is plans and specifications for implementation of the project and that’s due March of 2027. They’re proposing we perform a detailed rate study to determine the proposed project on rates and do that in late 2026. Construction would be fall of 2027 to spring of 2029. We will pursue a Clean Water Fund loan which is a state program to fund WWTP projects using loans and some possible principle forgiveness. Future rate impacts are in the plan. There’s a table of the facility plan. They associated costs to all the plan elements and a wide range of potential bid cost opinions. That range will come together as we get closer to bid day. The approximate cost is $2.1 million and we will pursue a CWF loan. The scoring for principle forgiveness is population, median household income, population. Historically the village has scored well on previous projects. Bidding is set for 3rd quarter of 2027. With the 2008 project, it was a 20-year loan and the debt payment will be paid soon. There’s an opportunity that these payments won’t start until after that loan is paid off. If we can time the start after the old loan is off the books, it can reduce the rates significantly. Gehrmann asked when they size the UV light system, will they have to do testing, and what if size isn’t correct and run into problems with performance. Taylor said the way they write the plans and specs, the MRF has to meet criteria and testing before they are paid. Allen knows the WWTP isn’t at full capacity, he asked if the UV lights will be sized to meet. Larson said they will have to. As long as we don’t have unique industries, it shouldn’t be a problem. They will want to keep an eye on new industry. There is some conservacism. So there is the ability to turn up and down. Bachim asked how long others have been running. New Glarus has a second version but it was 20 years. Facilities where it doesn’t seem to work is where they have something unusual. UV disinfection owns the market at this point. Gehrmann asked what do we need to look out for on this project. We have a great team but what things could go wrong with this that they as a board wouldn’t know. Larson said how much contingency to protect the equipment. The pictures they showed it isn’t covered, but normally it’s under some kind of cover. If we can keep those conditions better, that would be an enhancement. Risks are involved with construction, and if you have a good contractor, it should be okay. It’s a low bid project, so it’s the responsibility of contractor to do good work. Bachim asked what companies have been bidding, fairly local or pulling from a tri-state area. Larson said it will be small project, so contractors might be a small pool. CD Smith wasn’t interested in the smaller project in 2020, which was Daniels. We would want to be soliciting and making sure they know it’s coming. It’s a clean project, not a lot of messing with live systems. It will be in an unspoiled grassy area, so that will be attractive to some contractors. Want to make sure we’re reaching out to contractors to get business. It’s a tough market. Brusberg asked if there’s anything we should be doing as part of upgrade that we’re not doing. Larson said they gave it a pretty good look over and staff of public works has looked. It’s a 2009 startup and well-maintained, which leaves us in a great position. Lack of redundancy is being addressed with spares. They looked at it critically. Brusberg asked if there’s any other project down the road that we should be considering now or being mindful of. Larson said being mindful of things – one is if we get a total nitrogen limit, which would plausibly require a tank to remove nitrate, which we don’t remove much of. It’s one of the limits DNR has talked about for a decade but hasn’t shown up yet. Second things is pfo and pfas. If we test poorly, that’s a wildcard if it were to show up in system, but we wouldn’t necessarily plan for that other than to make sure industrial base isn’t using those products. The limits are stringent but when they did a risk analysis, there’s not a lot we need to treat. Allen asked if any future proofing on nitrate adding would make sense. Larson said the biological phosphorus facility, there was a large tank that didn’t get included. In the 2009 project they stubbed in where the tank would meet the oxidation ditch, so we already have the physical tie in. It would be a tank a quarter of the size of the oxidation ditch, but at this point in time it wouldn’t be worth doing. They talked about it in redundancy, and it would have been an additional million dollars, so they settled on the redundancies. It would age more than it’s worth to bring in now. Seitler said who is to say DNR won’t decide as soon as we get this done in 2029, now we need to have that. They may have been talking about it for a decade, but it seems it’s done on a dime when things happen. Larson said they would certainly provide another period of time and multiple years. It’s very unlikely it would be inside of 7 years even if happened tomorrow. Shippee asked once in are they good for ten years and then do maintenance. Larson when they compare, they look at all items, and do a 20-year estimate. It does include cost of lamp replacement, which is every few years you will have to replace lamps. It is in the cost opinion. Larson said this will be a six-month standard, and we don’t have to do it in winter months, so it will last longer. Shippee asked is it 100% disinfected or is there a threshold, or is it possible to increase. Larson said they’ve already increased the threshold. The standard has gotten tighter. He wouldn’t anticipate anything lower. Allen asked if tightened, it could go to 65% capacity and bump those bulbs. Larson said there is almost no detect until something going on, so the 126 is not generally observed. And as pointed out earlier, probably treating 80 of 200 gallons so that will increase detention, so it will have more time to make it more effective as well. Shippee stated we won’t know about potential rate increase until later. Taylor said the last loan will be paid off in 2028. Larson added this is a much smaller project, even with passing of time. Brusberg closed the public hearing at 7:04 p.m. Nothing additional from Strand. We will likely have another public hearing once we get the rate study. We have copies here of the project plan for residents to review. Public Comments – Tom Ethun lives at 100 block of Lincoln, and previously he brought up the fact of speeding. The sign has worked well and people have slowed down. it’s not 100%. The sign goes off and flashes when people speed. It has helped a lot. He wanted to let the board know that they have done well on it. Allen said he’s glad that it’s helped. Bachim thanked him for letting us know. Ethun asked if we will have more than one bid or one person that does this plant project. Brusberg said it goes out to an RFP and we get bids. Spilde said the last project we had 7 bidders. Bachim said the engineer will stay the same. President’s report – He thanked the Chamber of Commerce for putting on business fair last week. Business Complex update – we are still trading emails with Mortensen and expect an updated right of secondary refusal this week. Once we receive that, if it’s where we have to convene and do a board meeting, we will be in touch. We’re trying to get closing scheduled with the title company. Food Truck Night is next Tuesday the 19th. Lastly, he would like to recognize Linda for a designation she received from the Municipal Treasurers Association of Wisconsin, the Certified Municipal Treasurer of Wisconsin. Gehrmann made a motion to approve minutes from April 27. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. Allen abstained. Wendy Flanagan – GCDC – as part of her role she also acts as the Green County broadband coordinator. ARPA grants were given to state and counties. After changes in federal BEAD grant, they had money set aside to go with a company, and the county decided to do the BEAD broadband grant and work with that company. That funding got changed and the money they had set aside couldn’t be used to get a larger scale project in the county. They have ARPA funds to spend by the end of the year. It is earmarked for broadband and has to be used for broadband. They wish they had enough money to put in every home in the county. It’s allocated through the county IT department and oversight. What they decided to do was put free open access public wifi space in every community in the county. That’s what they’re trying to get done. What they would like to do is utilize the network and utilize this building as the anchor point and create a network that hops down the street and ends up at Legion Park. They would connect to this building’s network and they will put units, about 7 inches in diameter, on the decorative poles and end up with a unit in the park. The ARPA funds would pay for installation, all equipment, signage, electrical work. Once finished it becomes owned by the village, and then it’s the village’s to do with what we want after that point. They’re working with TC Networks for equipment and installation and also available if anything goes wrong with it. All of the equipment and work is guaranteed for a year minimum. The lifespan of the equipment in general she is told is 10 years. Essentially, if you think about how fast technology has changed, if at that point we want to replace, etc., it’s ours. Because it would be piggybacking onto this network, there are no additional internet fees. And there would be blocks in place to control cybersecurity for this building and blocks of how much data it can pull so work here doesn’t get slowed down. Brooklyn is one of main hotspot areas, but one of the biggest problem areas in the county and have lowest connectivity and lowest quality. She knows Frontier is putting fiber In, so it should get better. They want to make sure people in the area, they want to have a free space to go and get connected. Brusberg points out access coverage would be the eastern portion of Legion Park and out in that direction. Gehrmann said it would only be in Green County. Flanagan said it has to be located in Green County. Allen asked about cybersecurity. Flanagan said it’s blocks, so there’s outflow and no inflow. Seitler asked about a one-year warrant on parts. Flanagan said most have a one year and TC has a one year. Seitler after that point we’re responsible for any maintenance that needs to be done. Allen said every one needs electricity brought to it. Flanagan asked if the light poles stay on all the time. Spilde said dawn to dusk. Flanagan said there would have to be power to each one all the time. They have done a network in Albany, going from village hall to their park along the river. It’s a nice benefit, and it helps people in community who don’t have great access, and opens up ecommerce in the park and other events. Brusberg said a lot of the events are farther to the south. Bachim from the cybersecurity aspect, what type of insurance is involved; it’s a point of failure and what are we protected by, whether financial or not, it opens up access to our system. If someone relies on this for the phone and the system is down, they can’t call 911; it’s the world of liability. What if someone relies on this and it’s down and now they’re coming to us. Flanagan said it won’t be able to run phones. Bachim said it could draw traffic of people hanging out at the park after hours. Flanagan said it is the village’s to control. There is always that possibility until whatever hours the park is open, etc. She understands about phone access. Her counter to that, if they’re relying on that, then they have nothing right now. Bachim it’s not the village’s burden. Flanagan it’s a service. Ms. Shippee asked if they want to use it, you can have a disclaimer before joining and agree to that. Flanagan, yes, there’s a window where you have to agree to their terms before it allows you to connect. Allen don’t all phones or devices work for emergency calling. In an area like this with our towers, they should be able to connect. Gehrmann asked if there are any problems in any place they’ve put it in. Flanagan not that they’ve heard. Most look at it as an additional service for the public good and most don’t have the expectation and it’s more than before. Gehrmann if we wanted to get more coverage, could we do that and add hardware. Flanagan said the project they’re working with in Brodhead, they’re looking at adding security cameras. Brusberg confirmed the blocker prevents inbound. Flanagan said it’s only outflow. Bachim said we need to see information on the safety of the blocker. Allen wondered on the tight deadline, if we tentatively say yes, and if we don’t want it, unplug it and stop it. Flanagan said in other communities they are like we might not have the funds if something went wrong and needed to be replaced. It’s under the village’s control. Allen said it’s costing us nothing. Brusberg said a couple of businesses and homes, could they tap in for streaming. Flaangan doesn’t think it is a concern because of the data blocker. It can be as specific as during such and such an hour, you set the limit at a certain amount. Allen asked if we could set limit to a specific device so one person can’t use all of it. Flanagan can check on that. Seitler said that could be difficult. Allen said we might have to look at getting it extended in the park. Flanagan said if there’s a specific spot to reach, she can see if they can make it happen. It has to go pole to pole, is there tree coverage blocking and is there a pole available. Discussion on coverage area. Brusberg asked if there’s any concern with sheriff’s department. Kuhlman said they will check after board makes a decision. Brusberg said subject to sheriff approval and our IT, he’s in favor of having some coverage. Seitler doesn’t disagree but would like to see a cost breakdown, so we know if we have to replace, what would it be costwise after warranty period. Flanagan said the entire network and installation is less than $10,000. About half is installation and half is equipment of a $9300 bill. Brusberg said realistically, it might last a long time but technology is changing. Brusberg made a motion to move forward with the proposal from Green County, contingent on favorable feedback from sheriff’s department and our IT department. Allen seconded. Motion carried. No opposed. Justin Friedrich and Kaley Litchfield are purchasing property at 538 Windmill Road. Currently there is 28 acres, and DOT purchased land in 1970 that split the land in half, so 14 acres on the west side and 28 on east side of proposed Highway 14 reroute. They had a survey to combine the two lots on the west side, to combine the two 7-acre lots to a 14-acre, and separating the 28 acres and making it separate parcels. DOT didn’t separate parcels when they purchased it. They’re looking to get it separated legally, and they have an offer to sell to a farmer who will farm the front acreage they own, so they will be getting an easement to have access to the back land. Currently from 50 years ago there’s a document that states there’s accessibility on north and south for ag purposes to access those. Dane County is in the process of getting approval and have verbally accepted, but they’re waiting for definite approval from Dane County, Town of Rutland and village before they close. Bachim sees no issue. Bachim made a motion to approve CSM for 538 Windmill Road. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Gehrmann made a motion to approve bills as presented. Brusberg seconded. Motion carried. Public Works – Spilde stated his report was handed out. The pager is no longer active. When they did work on the cell tower, that deactivated the pager and it doesn’t give ability to use the old style pagers. They’re in the process of doing something to have it on their phones. Costwise it will be about $20 for all 4 to have. They will test it. Allen asked if there’s any concern with them being on the cell phone. Bachim asked if it can be turned off when not on call. Spilde said it can be turned off, and he thought about it a lot with the app. It’s also a way to communicate and they can text through this service. It’s same like the hospitals use for nurses and doctors. Seitler asked if it can set hours ahead of time. Spilde said they can set when on and off, and he will get a text message whenever a page is sent out. Effluent temperature study, we were over the temp, so they’re redoing the temp study this fall. They requested a lot more information, so it won’t be as streamlined, but they will get the data. He’s assuming it won’t change much. Lincoln Street pond was pumped April 14 and 15. Arbor Day was celebrated with 4th graders. Green County Sheriff made a request that we put some speed signs by the school. They sent to Surplus some items from PD like an old gun and ammo and then other equipment from public works. The new sign is on the LED. CMAR –board has a copy of the CMAR. For the new board member, this is a report required by DNR based on a 4.0 scale. We had two deficiencies; one on ammonia that was fixed, and the other one was when we had the new permit, we were upgraded to need advanced wastewater operators, which is being worked on. There was a B in ammonia and everything else was an A. Gehrmann made a motion to accept the Resolution 2026-03 for adoption of 2025 Compliance Maintenance Annual Report. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. The public works committee will meet on June 15. We are scheduled to replace the ¾ ton pickup with a plow. He went through the state contract and low bid was Chevy for $55,326.50, and he sees no reason not to go with low bid. Gehrmann asked what do we have for other trucks. Spilde said we have a mix of Ford and Chevy. Every 3 years, we purchase and replace. Allen asked how many miles this truck has. Spilde said this one has 12,000 miles, so it should bring close to the replacement cost on auction. Bachim looks like all working. Brusberg made a motion to move forward with Napleton Auto Group for the Chevy 2500. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. (Spilde left the meeting) Clerk’s Report – Financials for April; we had $148,132.67 in deposits, which included $36,817.30 of the first lottery credit payment, and $621,374.08 in withdrawals, including $441,089.27 in loan payments. That includes in April the Clean Water Fund loan payments for sewer and water funds. We had a balance of $2,470,396.43 in all accounts. Rest of the financials were handed out. Kuhlman will meet with Ehlers in June to talk about how the investments are going. She has noticed they have been fluctuating, and one lost money last month. Election equipment was taken in for maintenance. Olson and Kuhlman went to the spring treasurer conference in Green Bay. Kuhlman went to the League of Municipalities insurance conference last week. We received dividend check from insurance and it was $1,322 this year. She had a request from Rhonda Waldvogel, from American Legion. Her daughter is in Sea Cadets, which is for kids from 12-18, and once a month they do a weekend of drills. They are losing their training facility in Janesville, and she asked if they could use the community building starting this fall. Kuhlman told her $50 per weekend. Bachim asked about overtime hours and asked if the total listed is for a month. Kuhlman said it is year-to-date totals. Discussion on investments. Brusberg would like to look at complete reports. Brusberg asked about Ehlers doing a presentation. Kuhlman said after the finance committee meets and goes through capital projects. Finance meeting is set for May 28 at 5:15 p.m. Fire EMS District Commission - Brusberg stated the biggest item was having Phil Van Campen talk about the rfp process. It looks at potentially consolidating efforts across multiple districts. It’s Fitchburg and Oregon for sure. Bachim said possibly Cottage Grove. Our commission is participating so all of our municipalities are being made aware of what’s taking place. The cost was $6915 and is being covered through district financials. It doesn’t mean we are going forward and implementing anything. It’s just to get data and be involved with the assessment and output of the report. He felt a letter needed to go out to the members, so one was created and drafted to the members. He thinks the sprawl of municipalities was large, including Monona, Stoughton and McFarland also. They’ll get the results and go from there. The front entry posts and tender were discussed and secretary-treasurer report was included. Entry posts were discussed briefly, and they want to make sure that structurally they are sound before just encasing them. No discussion on the tender. He has a conflict for the meeting on May 20, so he wanted to see if anyone would go and represent the village board at that meeting. It’s at 6 p.m. at the fire station. Allen would be available. Brusberg thinks the front entry post will be voted on. The other item is the Penflex program and possibly going to a different provider. We’re not getting adequate service from Lincoln Financial, and others are going to UBS. Allen will go to the May 20 meeting. Bachim made a motion at 8:19 p.m. to adjourn. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Linda Kuhlman, WCMC, CMTW Clerk-Treasurer