10-13-25 Village Board — Minutes

Village Board Meeting Minutes October 13, 2025 On October 13, 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. Trustee David Berland was late, and Trustees Todd Klahn and Christian Allen was absent. Also present Robert Abramsky, Aiden Ellis, Sue McCallum, Rachel Brickner and Clerk-Treasurer Linda Kuhlman. Pledge of Allegiance. No public comments. President’s report – Thanks to fire/EMS for hosting the pancake breakfast, and to all members and officers. It was a fun event. He also appreciates all the work of the village board over the last few months and to the staff as well and engineers. Gehrmann made a motion to approve minutes of September 22. Olson seconded. Bachim abstained. Council on Aging – Sue McCallum – There were two meetings since last report - July and September. One thing done in September was a volunteer appreciation event. It was well attended and well liked and helps to keep volunteers coming back. $245 on the August report from the gift shop and $358 on the June. That feeds into the fundraising part of the senior center. One of key personnel, Ann Stone, is retiring and they’re looking to replace her. There were 29 applicants. They talked about having her continue on with specific program that she does and is trained in. Details are being worked on for that. Ice cream social in June made more than usual and was well attended, about $1400. Rachel will talk about plans on new senior center. Thysse has been hired to rebrand the senior center because new facilities will be more inclusive for activities and may take on a different clientele. They are putting out an RFP for fundraising. Rachel Brickner – thanked the village for continued support of the budget. Their budget figure is the same as last year. Next year is year 3 of a 5-year agreement. Brought some statistics for first 9 months of the year for people living in the village that have been using the center. McCallum said Olson had a question on transportation and meals. Brickner said there is an agreement between Dane and Green Counties for meals, and Green pays Dane County. Transportation is different and there is no reciprocal agreement, and there’s nothing they can do about that. Two places in red tape is transportation and case management. They’ve had two people in Dane County using case management. If someone calls from Green County side, they don’t call it case management, but they try to answer questions and put it under outreach; otherwise they refer the person to Green County ADRC. There have been 34 people using services this year, and 977 times that they’ve used services. Case management is in number of hours instead. There is somebody dependent on transportation, people coming to exercise, and 8 volunteers from Brooklyn. Olson asked if the total number of 34 people using the senior center, is that just the village or township also. Brickner said that’s just the village. Gehrmann is surprised not more meals are delivered. Do people not know about it or don’t need the help. He would have thought that would be higher. Brickner does a column for our newsletter and mentions that occasionally. It doesn’t have to be permanent. McCallum said they’ve torn down the library. Brickner said a couple years ago Oregon got more serious about replacing the building. They did a space needs analysis. They want to serve for 30-50 years in the new building. It will be a little over 30,000 square feet. It will be a one- story building. They have hired an architect, OPN. She handed out draft floor plans for a building that is senior center but also a community gymnasium. It will have a walking track, it will be open even when the senior center is closed. It will have pickleball courts, volleyball and basketball, classrooms, dining room, kitchen, offices. They didn’t overbuild the building. They will exercise not on concrete flooring, as an example. New building location will be in the current senior center in parking lot area. The old post office and old library are down. The village vacated Waterman Street. There will be bioretention areas. Next Oregon village board meeting they will look at plans and proposed costs and instructing to either cut some features out or give us the documents by the end of the month to go out to bid. They’re hoping to put shovels in the ground next spring and be finished the following year. Brusberg asked how the village is paying. Brickner said part is from their capital improvement plan. McCallum said donations for naming rights for certain things. Brickner said they’re trying to get away from the name the senior center to try to attract more people. A lot of the logo is a drawing of the old building, so they need to rebrand and rename. Right now there’s a survey out until November 7 to help give Thysse some direction. She will also leave a couple paper copies. It’s on the Oregon village web page. There will be community voting after the survey results come in. An RFP is out for a fundraising consultant and they want to have someone hired by the end of the year. They’re also working on an application for a grant, the non-state grant. She’s reaching out to various partners to provide a letter of support. If Brooklyn is willing she has a sample letter of support. If you go to the Village of Oregon webpage there is a senior center department page, and at the bottom there’s a page for new community/senior center information. Thank you for your time. The board thanked them both. McCallum thanked the board. Public Works/EM/Utilities – Spilde reported everyone has a copy of his report. The wastewater treatment plant upgrade, they’ve started the kickoff meeting. They met the 2 nd of October. There is a deadline of April 30 for the first step, which is to submit a facility plan. March 31 of 2027 they have to have the plans done, and September 30 of 2027 is the date they need to start the upgrade. That’s the big item to keep in mind. Gehrmann looked at the bills and so did Olson and saw no issues. Olson made a motion to approve bills as presented minus on page 5 for his own pay for dumpster days. Gehrmann seconded. Motion carried. Brusberg made a motion to approve wages for Olson for dumpster days. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. Olson abstained. Clerk’s report – Kuhlman passed out financials for month of September. There was $128,122.70 in deposits and $159,531.10 in withdrawals and ended with $2,560,603.39 in all accounts. We have received the plat from the surveyor for the Hotel Street block, so next steps are to place a notice in the paper and publish 3 weeks in a row. At start of publication, a 30-day clock starts and at the end of the 30 days, the village board approves it and it gets sent to the county. If anyone objects, they have to file a suit in Green County. As far as we know we don’t need signatures from the property owners. She’s talked to land information officer at Green County to give them notice it’s coming. He said it’s the first time in 60 years anyone has done an assessor’s plat in Green County. Gehrmann asked if the property owners know it’s coming. Kuhlman will send the notice with a copy of the plat to all property owners. All owners were spoken with before finalizing the survey. We sold the squad and skateboard park equipment on auction. Olson said it was about $15,500 on the squad. It was a 2018. Budget Discussion – Updated budget sheets were handed out. We have a surplus of $20,094.88. She started to work on mill rate preliminary figures, but we’re trending about 90 cents more on both Dane and Green County for village’s portion of taxes. Current mill rate is $8.45 in Dane and $8.45 in Green. We’re at approximately $9.32 in Dane and $9.38 in Green per thousand. Brusberg asked why it went up. Kuhlman said it’s the levy increase, and debt schedule went up about $60,000 from last year. That’s the major portion. In the debt schedule is the loan for Hotel Street and we’re hoping to have extra money to prepay down on the balance. We’re within expenditure restraint limits. This year we received $15,000 and next year we’re getting $4600, so it’s hard to tell what it will be in 2027. It’s based on municipalities and how much they have funds for. It’s gone down the last few years. Discussion on levy amounts. We increased levy by about $116,000. She doesn’t have the final assessment figures yet. She gave board information on water and sewer budget. We lost $8,400 in operating budget last year in water. Sewer we came out ahead but don’t have as much cash on hand. Debt isn’t considered in operating expenses. Gehrmann asked about the increase in well outlay for water budget. Kuhlman said it is for the increase in scheduled well maintenance. Spilde stated we don’t have to do that next year, neither the well or tower. It’s a recommendation at 8 years and required at 10 years for well 2. Since we just did well 1, he’d like to space them out closer to five years in between. We don’t have to have a draw down inspection until 2030 on the tower, with the current technology. So he’s thinking 2028 we will do well 2 and 2030 we’ll do the tower. The well 1 was about $68,000 and to do the water tower is between $12,000 and $15,000, and hopefully by 2030 there will be technology we don’t have to set up a portable tank. Discussion on wages distribution – Kuhlman stated she figures an average in the different public works category and they’re distributed throughout all public work wage categories. Discussion on Dane County Sheriff categories - the indirect costs are admin and costs for the availability of all other divisions of the sheriff’s department; we have to pay for fuel; and the equipment outlay is for initial equipment that they added at the beginning of the contract, and next year is the last year we need to pay that. Email retention is up because we’ve added additional software security measures for emails and computer protection in the village. Brusberg asked if there are things to add. Spilde talked about loader maintenance is increasing and sign pricing is going up and we are getting more. Discussion on looking to get a new loader, approximate cost $100,000. Discussion on capital projects, we have a fund balance of $238,000. Discussion on meter replacements and water connection fees. PSC regulates all those fees for water. Kuhlman received a quote from Ehlers for water rate study and help with the full rate case from PSC for about $11,000 for both studies. Discussion on smaller capital projects and the possibility of using surplus for a generic outlay account. Discussed increasing public works shop supplies by $1000; put park maintenance at $4000 total. Discussion on election equipment needs. Brusberg had concerns on mill rate increase. Gehrmann said it’s mostly attributed to the debt. Brusberg said we’ve kept the mill rate close to the same for the last several years. Bachim said it can’t maintain forever but thinks it’s great the board has kept it steady for so long. Kuhlman said debt payback peaks next year and then starts to decrease. Discussion on community building needed maintenance, revenues coming in, and usage. Suggestion to keep fund balance for new loader. Kuhlman suggested having a meeting to discuss a capital plan. Board suggested January time frame. Discussion on getting a second deputy. We need $60,000 more to get a second officer. Discussion on moving the water hydrant fees from levy to monthly fees on the utility bill. This would free up general funds for an additional deputy, and the cost would be very roughly $210/year per residential unit on their utility bills. Brusberg said he is not opposed to holding a villagewide meeting to discuss this next year. Ehlers could come to the board and explain how it works. Planning & Zoning Commission - they had a meeting Sept 30. They gave a recommendation for the site plan for Jeff Groenier to build on Second Street and put in a sidewalk. Other items on the agenda are tied to 100 Railroad Street, and they need to have the neighbor sign something that he will be taking on fence maintenance, and then a conditional use permit needs to be filed. They are to give us a site plan for the building upgrades. They want to change it to a small engine repair. Brusberg made a motion at 7:48 p.m. to adjourn. Bachim seconded. Motion carried. Linda Kuhlman, WCPC, CMTW Clerk-Treasurer