11-10-25 Village Board Meeting — Minutes

Village Board Meeting Minutes November 10, 2025 On November 10 2025, President Mike Brusberg called the Village Board meeting of the Village of Brooklyn to order at 6:00 p.m. Trustees present were Mike Gehrmann, Jake Bachim, Dan Olson, David Berland, Todd Klahn, and Christian Allen. Also present were Jason Marshal, Deputy Grumke, and Clerk-Treasurer Linda Kuhlman. Pledge of Allegiance. Public Comments – Marshall sent clerk pictures of sidewalk after the small rain/snow event, someone crashed their head and elbows. It was glare ice. He wondered as a board, if they would buy a sign for the winter; something put out that says caution. He’s sent the video and asked board to please take a look at it. The sidewalk is 100% dry between the buildings until you hit the sidewalk the village put in and out front. He was shocked it was that bad. He knew it was going to happen. He’s sure he’s looking at a lawsuit. He’s not going to come to meetings and keep hashing it out. He’d like to know what the plan is. He met with an eavestrough guy, but the rest is dry and the eavestroughs have nothing to do with it. It wasn’t dripping off the roof. The person said you want me to drain this roof into that. He’s letting us know what was told to him. It’s something to look at sooner rather than later and get a plan. Brusberg said he hopes the woman is doing okay post-accident. You mentioned someone to give a quote for eavestroughs, and again, as discussed at a prior meeting, are you going to get them. Marshall said he’s getting a price but doesn’t know if they can run to the drain there. He’s checking with another professional. In the photos, the eavestroughs have nothing to do with it, because it’s 100% dry on the old cement where they didn’t take it out. All the rest; it’s just right in front of the building, being so flat. The eavestroughs have nothing to do with it. You can see in the photos where it’s bone dry. Brusberg asked for a rough idea when he’ll have the quote. Marshall said eavestroughs have nothing to do with it. There’s not enough pitch. Brusberg stated in order to go back to contractors, we need the eavestroughs in because it takes out one barrier. Marshall said he wants to put a six-inch and we’re going into a smaller drain. Brusberg said we can work with the contractors to solve that. We can’t take any action tonight. At a future meeting we’ll take action on what to do about the signage. Marshall said the photos clearly show the eavestrough is not going to solve the problem. They’re 100% dry up to that and it’s flat. Brusberg said that’s one variable to solve for. He’s not trying to be difficult. We don’t want it to happen again. We have the one-year warranty so we can work to get this resolved. Do the board members have any other questions? Klahn said the engineers say we need eavestroughs on there, and it takes away their variable that it’s not that. It’s easier for us to go back on the contractor and engineer with proof; that’s our leverage. Marshall asked what to do if can’t run into it because it’s too small. Klahn said we’ll work with that. Bachim said he can’t run the whole building forward. We need to eliminate those variables in order to work on getting warranty done. Marshall said his person is saying he can’t install into this drain. Bachim said if that’s what his opinion is, let us know. Gehrmann said if he can say this is the size of drain we want, that’s even better. Bachim added we need documentation. Marshall, it’s zero pitch; water can’t run. Brusberg stated we need you to produce something with documentation, and we can take that back. The pictures and video help. Marshall said this is perfectly flat; there’s no melting on the roof; just absolutely zero pitch. Brusberg said we need something from them. Discussion of photos. Marshall said they’ll put a sign up. He can’t pitch that all one way; they’ll pitch part to the back. (Marshall left) President’s Report – Brusberg with tomorrow being Veterans Day, he would like to extend a special thank you to all veterans current and past. Thank you to all veterans. Gehrmann made a motion to approve minutes from October 13 and 23 board meetings. Berland seconded. Olson and Klahn abstained. Motion carried. Public Works – Kuhlman received report from Public Works. They won’t have a meeting this month. Well #1 needs a relief valve replacement. They believe that contributed to the recent broken water mains. It will be about $6,000, and the part is on order. Also, monthly samples were taken; they’re continuing to do meter replacements; there is a DNR inspection on November 12; they had a couple broken water mains. The treatment plant permit requirement due by October 31 is for a notice of intent to apply for the 2027 clean water fund program; did a temperature study at the treatment plant; Joe Reilly passed a biosolid test, congratulations to him; biosolids tank was emptied on November 7 and 8; they winterized the plant. The plant did not meet ammonia nitrogen monthly limit of 3.7 mg/l; the monthly average was 7.1 mg/l. They noted a change in dissolved oxygen in the oxidation ditch. They’ve been troubleshooting and tracked it to a program issue with SCADA and aerators. No programming changes were made. They’ve done hand checks on D.O. along with calibration of the D.O. meter in the ditch. Strand & Associates has assisted. It looks to be trending better as of November 10 th. Streets – they’re working on get the sculpture set up; leaf pickup has started; had to repair the leaf stacker; Brian is taking a DNR tree class; village hall pond drain tile was installed; they prepped snow equipment; hauled compost; and closed the park bathrooms. Clerk’s report—Kuhlman reported October financials -- $140,880.70 in deposits and $217,514.34 in withdrawals for a total balance in all accounts at end of October of $2,483,969.75. We’re working on the developer agreement changes to get back to Mortensen/Groenier. We talked about early January closing date. Kuhlman attended a Zoom meeting with the Dane County Consortium CDBG members last week. There is a portion of grant funds they are set aside for public facilities and public infrastructure. It’s a 50-50 matching grant, but she’d like to explore if the community building upgrades could be included. An application next year would be funded the following year. Board agreed to explore it. The Verizon cell tower upgrades are proceedings. They received zoning approval and now need to apply for a building permit. Highway 92 project is substantially complete. There are a few punchlist items to finish. Gehrmann and Olson reviewed bills. Olson made a motion to approve bills as presented. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Extra-territorial split is for property at West Rutland and MM; giving one parcel about 20 additional feet from the other parcel. Berland made a motion that we express no concerns on the extraterritorial split. Olson seconded. Motion carried. Kuhlman explained on behalf of the Brooklyn Chamber and American Legion about the July 4 th celebration they would like to have in Legion Park. Public Works, Sheriff’s and fire departments have provided their comments. There will be a softball tournament; crafters and other vendors in between the ball diamond and shelter. We will have some food trucks and other food vendors set up in that area, and set up a flatbed trailer for possible bands starting in the afternoon and going to early evening. Parking will be as you first come in the park, leaving room for the softball tournament, or in the area by the pulling track. American Legion has not decided if they will do fireworks yet, and they know they need approval for that separately. Kuhlman will submit an amplification permit at the next meeting for the bands. There will be extra port-a-potties in the park Klahn made a motion to approve the special event application for July 4, 2026. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. Kuhlman gave the board a quote on cameras at village hall, public works, the wells, and the water tower. DNR has been mentioning they want water facilities to have cameras. At the wells we will need to get cellular connections. It is cloud-based service. She is waiting for a second quote. Brusberg will send her information on commercial Ring installers to get another quote. Waiting for more information, so no motion at this time. Budget -- Kuhlman handed out current budget information based on last meeting. We have a surplus of $17,844.88. Spilde would like to change Truck Maintenance to read Equipment Maintenance. The loader maintenance category also includes the smaller skidloader and Bobcat. No news on finding new loader. Olson said the Bobcat loader is a no-go. Kuhlman said we haven’t received the county information yet, but the village’s increase in levy is an average of $12.29; millrate is $9.32 in Dane County and $9.38 in Green County, which is increase of about 90 cents in each county. In the debt fund we have a fund balance of $38,000 coming from special assessments that were paid in full and not in the budget. If we use that $30,000, we can take that off the levy, which reduces the mill rate to an average of $9.15, which is about 25 cents down from the 90 cent increase. Discussion on debt fund balance. We also have about $283,000 in general fund balance. Discussion on using fund balance for capital projects. The board agreed to use $10,000 in the debt fund toward the debt levy. Sheriff department overtime hours were discussed. Brusberg would like to see sheriff overtime hours on a quarterly basis in 2026. Kuhlman reported it will be $657 to upgrade election equipment to new software if we’re not going to get new election equipment. The board decided to put the surplus balance we have in general fund to an outlay account. Kuhlman said she asked about why we can’t charge new homes for water meter installation, and it’s regulated by PSC. PSC has said those costs are considered in the rates. The board previously discussed doing a simplified water rate case. Klahn made a motion to increase the 3% on water rates. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. The board agreed to hold on the sewer rates until we do a sewer rate study. Fire/EMS Commission – Brusberg stated they made a decision to move forward with replacing the boilers with Hillestad and up to an amount of $18,000 and covered by the fire/EMS district. They are continuing discussion on what to do with the old ambulance. They still have the ambulance. Bachim said it’s stripped, the decals are off, they pulled the electronics out, and there are a few departments looking to purchase it; one being the county itself. Farm tour bill has been aggregated and billed out and payment has been received for $34,000, including one day’s worth of payroll. FAP has been submitted to state for potential dollars. They anticipate it to be around $22,000. Majority goes to equipment, except for about $3,000 funded for other things. Klahn made a motion at 7:43 p.m. to adjourn. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. Linda Kuhlman, WCPC, CMTW Clerk-Treasurer