Village Board Meeting — Minutes

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 1 The Friendship Village Board meeting was called to order followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by all present. President Robert Berry called the meeting to order and roll call was taken. Present were Trustees Brad Oberbeck, Ernie Klicko, Nadine Ashworth , Melvin Waller, Justin Hutter and President Berry. Also present were Attorney Joseph Hasler , Public Works Director Beth Schultz, Treasurer Sandy Shawback and Clerk Rebecca Reuter. DISCUSSION/DECISION CONCERNING FILLING VILLAGE TRUSTEE VACANCY Ashworth stated that she thinks we should fill it, we should have a full board. Hutter also agreed. He feels we should offer it to Jerry. Klicko stated that he walked out 20 minutes ago. Hutter said the last time he talked to him if offered the position Jerry stated that he would take it. Klicko stated that Don Kelly is interested. From the audience Steve Par rott stated that he wanted to nominate Tony Sindelar , second by Klicko. Also, from the audience Eddie Bender wanted to nominate himself, second by Berry. Hutter nominated Jerry Sonnenberg, with no second. Hasler stated that an open ballot was required and recommended that ballots be distributed to Board members so they could indicate their choice. Clerk Reuter distributed and collected the ballots, then returned them to Attorney Hasler, who read the results. Nadine Ashworth voted for Tony Sindelar. Brad Oberbeck voted for Tony Sindelar. Justin Hutter voted for Eddie Bender. Robert Berry voted for Tony Sindelar. Melvin Waller voted for Tony Sindelar. Ernie Klicko voted for Tony Sindelar. Final vote: Sindelar received 5 votes; Bender received 1 vote. Berry welcomed Sindelar back to the board. Hasler stated that between now and the next meeting Sindelar should take his oath to be official. PRESIDENT BERRY TO MAKE FINANCE/PERSONNEL & PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS Berry stated that finance and personnel would stay as it is. He will make Sindelar Chairman of Public Works. APPROVAL OF JUNE 1 & JUNE 15, 2026, BOARD MEETING MINUTES MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Waller to approve June 1 & June 15, 2026, Village Board minutes, motion carried. TREASURER REPORT General Water Sewer May 1, 2026, Balance 118,695.90 273,097.40 6,467.33 May Receipts 7,304.72 185,504.08 13,717.75 May Disbursements 41,370.22 20,267.08 5,266.59 May 31, 2026, Balance 84,630.40 438,334.40 14,918.49 LGIP #1 TIF $922,870.14 – LGIP #9 ARPA $0.45 – Capital Project Checking $34,393.38 - Building Fund $ 75,000.00 – Money Market $1,646.91 – CDBG Working Fund $13, 857.48 - LGIP #6 Park/Beach $46,704.31 – Tax Checking $12,000.00 – TIF Checking $95.00 -Street Equipment Fund $41,416.50 – Court Order Proceeds $3,808.03 – Water LGIP #3 Special Redemption Fund $232,789.14 - LGIP #4 Water Replacement Fund $ 403,200.10 – LGIP #8 Water Debt Reserve Fund $ 81,746.29 – Sewer LGIP#2 Special Redemption Fund $ 88,963.49 - LGIP#5 Sewer Replacement Fund $57,572.17 – LGIP#7 Sewer Debt Reserve Fund $66,463.43 MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Ashworth to approve treasurer report, motion carried. PAYING OF BILLS MOTION by Klicko, second by Oberbeck to approve June vouchers 28272- 28319 in the amount of $115,027.44, motion carried. CITIZEN INPUT VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 2 Shirley Hill – As she drives through Friendship and it just seems like things are going downhill. She drives by the little yellow brick road complex and it’s a mess. What is being done with anything there. She would like to see Friendship getting a little neater. You can’t walk down the street by the Friendship Hotel because it is in shambles and might fall on the sidewalk. Can’t we spruce up Friendship a little bit? Berry replied that both of those property owners have received letters. We are trying to get them to do the work and get them cleaned up. Hill thinks it looks so much nicer where the East Lake St. property was cleaned up. Schultz stated that the owner of the hotel has been notified several times by letter and by phone. She is in the process of having it taken care of. She has a guy who is going to take care of it he is just working on other jobs right now. We have done what we can do as far as getting ahold of them. We have taped off the sidewalk so that people can stay away from the area. Hill stated that Friendship was neat at one time, and nice. You could drive through and you thought to yourself that Friendship was the appropriate name for our Village, but it has kinda gone downhill a little bit. Berry stated that we have been working with the motel and they have cleaned some of it up over the last 6 months. But we are watching it and keeping our eyes on it. Wendy Marinkovich - she lives right across from 207 East Lake Street. She knows it is on the agenda item number 10. The car has been sitting there, she doesn’t know if anybody is staying in it, if the windows are down, if it’s a junk car, if it’s his campground, she’s not sure what’s happening there. But her concern is whether he is, or someone is staying the night there. And there’s no facilities there so what’s happening with toilets and stuff? Those are her concerns but if we are going to talk about it on number 10, she can wait. Deborah Lumby - How long do we have to pay these ridicules increases in our water/sewer bill. Will this be forever? Berry answered that unfortunately yes, and they will probably be going up again. Our hands are tied because we buy our water, and our sewer from the City of Adams. With all of the upgrades that they are making they intern pass the cost of that to us, and we have to pass it on to our residents. Our hands are tied. If we didn’t, we would be losing money. We all live in the Village, and we all have to pay the increases. Nadine Ashworth – stated that she would like to thank the Village for their donation to the fireworks. She walked into night and had a lot of complements, and she just wanted to say thank you to everyone. Berry said that once again it was an awesome 4th of July fireworks show, and that he’s so glad that the rain held off for it. Al Arndt – from the American Legion also wanted to thank the Village for allowing, and Nadine for putting on the fireworks. They were excellent. Good Job. They were run very professionally. A lot of people were complementing and clapping up and down the road as they were going on. He knows it is a pain in the butt, and a lot of work for Nadine and her family, so again the American Legion would like to thank you. Ashworth said that she couldn’t take the credit for the firework show, that is all Lenny. He orders them, sets them up, he does it all, she just picks them up and pays for them. ROPORT FROM COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE RICK PEASE IF IN ATTENDANCE Not in attendance UPDATE ON EAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Schultz stated that the property owner had a scout parked there blocking the driveway so the brother wouldn’t be able to pull in there, but it didn’t work that way as he just drove around it. The little black car that is in there is not in his name, so he has gotten the scout out but is having problems getting the car out because it is titled in his brother’s name. He is going to have it mowed by the 4th of July. He is also going to take care of the shed and get it out of there. He also is talking about donating the property back to the Village as he wants out from underneath it. He said that the property is in his business name so he would take the dept from the raze and remove. He is going to talk to his attorney and see what we can do there. He has been very good to work with her and has responded timely. He’s really trying. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 3 The Board briefly discussed whether the property owner could have the black car towed from the property. It was noted that, as the landowner, he has the right to tow a vehicle from his property if it does not belong to him. ADOPTING THE ADAMS COUNTY ALL HAZARDS MITIGATION PLAN UPDATE RESOLUTION #2026-7-6 MOTION by Klicko, second by Oberbeck to adopt the Adams County All Hazard Mitigation Plan, motion carried. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING THE PURCHASE OF A TRUCK FOR THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT Waller said that he and Schultz went to Necedah to look at a truck he had found. The truck appeared to be in good condition, with only minor rust at the bottom of the driver’s door. Otherwise, the body was in good shape. The truck has approximately 140,000 miles, has had only one owner, and has been maintained at a local garage. Schultz drove the truck and said it handled well. The asking price is $4,800. Waller noted that the Village does not have a lot of money available for equipment right now, but he felt the price was reasonable. He also stated that there is money in the street equipment fund; however, the Village will need a new plow truck in a few years and should continue building that fund to help pay for it. He added that the truck is a crew cab pickup, which would provide enough room for the Committee during drive-arounds. Schultz stated that the truck has new tires, the fluids have been changed, and it is in very good condition. She also noted that it has a spray-in bed liner and a topper on the back. Schultz explained that the department needs two trucks because it has two workers. There are times when Applegate is working at the beach or park while Schultz needs to respond to a water leak or another issue. She has been using her personal vehicle in those situations, which has become a concern. Waller recommended that the Village purchase the pickup. MOTION by Waller, second by Klicko to purchase the pickup truck for Public Works, motion carried. TRUSTEE KLICKO TO PROVIDE AN UPDATE ON DISCUSSIONS WITH MAX MURPHY FROM THE CITY OF ADAMS REGARDING ATV/UTV AND E-BIKE/E-SCOOTER ORDINANCES ATV/UTV Ordinance Update: Klicko stated that Max met with the Sheriff and the Police Chief, although Klicko was unable to attend that meeting. He explained that the ordinances are very similar and that a combined document is being circulated for review. He hopes an ordinance can be brought forward next month. E-Bikes and E-Scooters: Klicko noted that e-bikes and e-scooters were not discussed. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT BY PRESIDENT BERRY - DISCUSSION & POSSIBLE ACTION ON: a) Citizen input No citizen input. b) Discussion & Possible Action on: Selling the old light poles There have been some residents that have asked about the damaged light pole, and they would like to buy them from us. They wanted to offer us $150 -$200, those light poles are $700 new. Waller made the recommendation that we sell the damaged light poles for $350, he feels they are worth that. MOTION by Waller, second by Klicko to sell the damaged streetlight poles for $350.00, motion carried. c) Discussion & Possible Action on: Televising the Storm Sewers Schultz also got some estimates back for televising the storm sewers one from Steves Plumbing, she then received one from W isconsin Rural Water Association (WRWA) and they are willing to come televise everything for free. So that’s the way we are going to go. d) Discussion & Possible Action on: Small pond at Friendship Park There was some discussion on what to do with the small pond at the park. Schultz stated that the small pond at the park may be a safety concern. She noted that children play near the pond, dogs are walked nearby, and the area may be a mosquito breeding ground. Although the water is not very deep —approximately knee-deep at its deepest point—she said the bottom feels like quicksand. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 4 Schultz reported that she contacted an excavating company for ideas on possible improvements. She also contacted County Land and Water but had not yet received a response. She spoke with the DNR, which advised that the Village may have several options. One option would be to treat the aquatic weeds to help reduce mosquitoes. The DNR representative said there are water-friendly chemicals available and, because the pond is small, a permit may not be required for that type of treatment. Another option would be excavation. Schultz and Hintz discussed digging out the pond, placing rock around it, and installing an aerator in the center. Schultz noted that this option would be a significant expense for the Village. Schultz also asked the DNR whether grant funding may be available because the pond is in a public area used by children. The DNR representative is checking into possible grant options and will connect her with the person responsible for grants. e) Public Works Directors Report Schultz said they have been getting ready for the 4 th of July Parade, and sweeping streets to save some money, cleaning storm sewers and painting lines. Doing all of that themselves she feels that we have saved around $7,000. Oberbeck asked if that is where some of the overtime is coming from that they are seeing? Just based on the paying of the bills. Schultz said that they don’t do overtime for that. If there is overtime, it’s probably her doing paperwork after the end of the day. She is still doing the sewer survey and other things that she needs to have updated by August. Schultz called Manthey Salvage in Mauston, and they said that if we could drive in the old brush truck, we would get $161 per ton, and the gross w ight on the truck is 29.5. She had another guy call this afternoon and he put in a silent bid for $1,200, we also have a bid from a gentleman in town who would pay $700. Twin Creeks Nursery donated almost $200 worth of flowers to us today for our park. They are all supposed to be deer resistant. On July 14 th she has a meeting with a lady from Game Time. They have a matching grant program. Her designers have already taken an aerial view and are mapping out the park. On the 14th they are coming down to show us how it will look. If we do the grant, it would be $60,000 for playground equipment. We would have to find help to install it. She is hoping to get help from the wrestling club or the fire department. She would like to set up a series of concerts in the park in 2027. She has drafted up a letter and gone around to businesses to ask for donations. Everyone seems very excited about this. It would be completely free to everyone. She is looking into seeing if a food truck can come down in case people can’t have dinner beforehand. She is looking at 6:30 -8:30 at night. The first year, depending on the support that we get, there would be 4 concerts. She hopes that the first concert can be the Jazz Band from the high school. Berry stated that it’s been done in that past, and he doesn’t know why it stopped . But he thinks it is a fantastic idea. One more thing to help promote the Village and get people here. f) Adjourn Meeting to Drive Around and Review Properties Berry stated that the Committee did their first drive around of the village this summer and there were a few properties that were marked to keep our eyes on. A few that were going to get letters. Some of the ones they were watching last year have cleaned up. Some of them are still on that list to watch. Schultz stated that she thinks all in all she feels things are getting cleaned up. Every letter that was sent out was cleaned up. She had one person come in that was upset, but she cleaned up what needed to be cleaned. Berry knows years ago the Village and the City were going to get together to do a Main Street revitalization and he doesn’t know if anything has ever been done with that. Sindelar stated that is pa rt of the Downtown Adams-Friendship Improvements. He still volunteers on that committee. They are still in the early process of trying to get everything established. To get the corporation of that committee together. The long-range plan is to help downtown with improvements to help spruce up the façade. To see what resources are available to the business and also to work with the parks. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 5 FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT REPORT BY TRUSTEE ASHWORTH Hutter stated that he was unable to make it, so he asked Ashworth to fill in for him. Ashworth said that the Treasures report was approved. Chuck Spargo of the Finance Committee suggested that they get a second quote to refinance the loan that they have coming up in August. The Committee also talked about changing banks to go where the better interest rate was. The fishing Derby is coming up on July 18th. They are still working on volunteers and raffle baskets. The harvester is still working quite a bit. There is a concern on the east side on 11th Ave. where they take the harvester in and out the sediment has gone down and it is making it hard to get the harvester in. They are trying to figure out who owns it. If it is the municipality. Al Arndt thinks that it is the Lake District that is responsible for that. It is run by the DNR. They are just north of that so it would be in the Town of Preston . But the access going into the lake he believes is still lake district. Ashworth continued saying that Mark Webber is from a company that sells eco-harvesters. They are a little bit smaller . They pull weeds up by the root and can get into more shallow areas . He is going to bring one to our lake over on 11th to try it out, test it to see if it would work. The dam was inspected. It was $1,000, and that was under budget. The next meeting is July 16th at 7:00, at the Adams Town Hall. Hutter also wanted to add that they are raising the lake by 4 inches to make it easier for the harvester to get in and out. Hutter also added that at the last meeting there was discussion on boat motors on the lake, and that same discussion was also going on at a sate level. The legislation going on at the state level was only for wave boats, and that still failed by 20 votes. He will keep his eyes on that. FIRE DISTRICT REPORT BY TRUSTEE KLICKO Klicko stated the most important thing they are working on right now is the equipment replacement plan has evolved from brush trucks to pumper tender truck to replace two aging tenders. The current plan is to use the equipment replacement money and the budget ed item on the mass pumper that they bought as they only have two payments left, so they would use that money. They are trying to keep this new truck as a budget item so that they don’t have to go back to all the municipalities for further assessment. It’s still in the planning stages. They tested a bunch of hose and bought some new adapters. AMBULANCE COMMITTEE REPORT BY TRESTEE ASHWORTH Ashworth stated they didn’t have a meeting. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF OPERATOR’S LICENSE – JANICE HOWLAND MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Klicko to approve Operator’s License for Janice Howland, motion carried. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF WATER/SODA LICENSE – FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT, AND NODDLE COUNTRY MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Ashworth to approve Water/Soda License for Friendship Lake District, and Noddle Country, motion carried. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF MOBILE FOOD VENDING LICENSE – NOODLE COUNTRY MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Ashworth to approve Mobile Food Vending License for Noddle Country, motion carried. DISCUSSION ONLY, WITH NO ACTION TO BE TAKEN, REGARDING ROOM TAX AND SHORT - TERM RENTALS Reuter brought up Room Tax and Short-term rentals were discussed at the Finance Committee meeting and the motion was made to bring it to the Village Board for a discussion only with no action to be taken at this time. The City of Adams came to us and wanted to know if we wanted to go with them. Visit Adams County already collects Room and Short-term rentals tax. We are one of the only municipalities in the county that doesn’t collect. Hutter stated that he knows exactly what this is and it goes hand in hand with what he wanted to purpose with a Tourism board. Hasler asked if the City of Adams currently collects their room tax? VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 6 Reuter stated that they are going through Viste Adams County to have their room tax and short - term rents collected, but they don’t feel that Visit Adams County is doing a very good job spending their money in the city and when asked what they are doing with it they received a list of tourism conferences that Visit Adams County have been to, to promote the county. But the city wants it to stay in their community. So, they were proposing that the village and the city work together. Hasler stated as we may know one of his other clients is the City of Wisconsin Dells, so he knows something about room tax an d short-term rental. The most important thing to start out with is his understanding is that if we impose a room tax, we don ’t keep the money you have to send it to a tourism entity. If there is an existing tourism entit y, but y ou don’t like what that tourism entity is doing then you would need to go through some process to create a new tourism entity. The question then becomes how complicated is that going to be and are you better off trying to influence the existing tourism entity. He doesn’t think you can simply impose a tax and keep the money yourself. Oberbeck stated that we at the Finance and Personnel Committee had this discussion with Jerri and it was a suggestion that is there a way to find out how many rooms would be affected. We are talking Airbnb, BRBO, whatever cabins in the Village limits. Is this even worth clogging up the office to impose. These are things that we talked about to bring to this Board. Because if it doesn’t make dollars then it doesn ’t make sense to clog up that office more with suc h a trivial amount . That’s why we wanted to bring it to the whole Board. Because what we were hearing that whole night was a whole lot of uncertainty, there weren’t a lot of answers, just a basic presentation on this is where we would like to see this in a few years. It was very vague. That was where we left it that evening was to bring it back to the full Board because we just weren’t getting the answers that we wanted. We did n’t have much information to go off from period. He feels he has gotten more of an explanation just now, then through that entire presentation, and he appreciates it, so thank you. Hasler stated that he thinks you need to keep in mind that hotels and motel s in the state of Wisconsin didn’t want room tax collected by municipalities for general municipal purposes. If their customers were going to have to pay them, they wanted to see a return, and the return was to spend the money on tourism, development and premotion rather than on fixing streets or promoting Village or City activities. And that is why i the City of Reedsburg collects the room tax it goes to the Reedsburg Chamber of Commerce, if the City of Wisconsin Dells co llects a room tax it goes to Visitor and Convention Bureau. If you don’t like what your tourism entity is doing, he supposes you can try and create a new one , but he thinks if you are only going to be able to keep 30% of it is it worth the time, trouble and expense. Is it worth $20,000 in expense just to collect $10,000. Klicko stated that he doesn’t even feel it would be that much. Probably more like $1,000 or $2,000. He asked if anyone knew how many rooms we have that would be affected? Hutter said that he knows we have a few Airbnb’s, Cabins on the Lake and Island Shore Resort. Waller stated that the Lions Club i n Arkdale receives money from the Town o f Quincy, Town of Strongs Prairie, and the Town of Rome every year for maintaining the park in Arkdale from their room tax. Strongs Prairie also gives a big chunk of money to the Old Farmers Club, and that all comes out of room tax. Oberbeck stated that all of those communities are on the bigger lakes. The same could be sa id about the Northern Bay area, the privet BRBO’s in Northern Bay alone probably makes a great deal of difference in those communities, we are looking at the community in the Village of Friendship. We don’t have that amount. Waller said what he is trying to get at is if we want to understand it we need to talk to somebody like Strongs Prairie, or Quincy to see who has the money. Does it go to the Chamber? Ashworth stated that if we were going to do this, she would say we need to do it on our own . She would not want to do it with Adams. Because who decides where the money goes. Hutter agrees. He thinks the Chamber has done zero for him and his business, and every year he is more successful than the year before. Berry has heard that complaint about the Chamber before. He doesn’t think we are big enough. Hutter says that by doing this we can make money to put back into tourism. Oberbeck stated that he would love to hear citizen input on this , he would like the whole community’s input on this . He would like the most informed decisions to be mad e. To see the number of units . If we are going to be making a decision like that, he would like to he ar what the citizens would like to see happen. Because we are going to be held accountable for it. Berry stated that before we have a public hearing or anything like that, we need to have our ducks in a row. We need to know how many rooms we have . We all need to do more research on it and then bring it back to the board. Hasler stated that he feels the relevant inquiries are A) What other communities in Adams County are collecting room tax? What is the rate that they are charging? B) Are all the communities in VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – July 6, 2026, PAGE 7 Adams County that are collecting the room tax, what tourism entity are they contracting with as the recipient of the moneys of the 70% they have to by law they can’t keep. CORRESPONDENCE Reuter read a Thank You card for allowing the hall rental for the low-cost vaccine clinics by ACHS Manager Stephanie SET AGENDA ITEMS FOR AUGUST 3rd MEETING Discussion and possible action on room tax Being of no further business to come before the board, MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Ashworth to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at 7:20. __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk