Village Board Meeting — Minutes

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 1, 2026, PAGE 1 The Friendship Village Board meeting was called to order followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by all present. Clerk Rebecca Reuter called the meeting to order and roll call was taken. Present were Trustees Brad Oberbeck, Ernie Klicko, Nadine Ashworth, Melvin Waller, Bob Berry, and Justin Hutter. Also present were Attorney Joseph Hassler, Public Works Director Beth Schultz, Treasurer Sandy Shawback and Clerk Rebecca Reuter Hasler stated that the Village code states with the resignation of the Village President one of the Trustees would need to run the meeting. MOTION by Klicko, second by Hutter to nominate Trustee Berry to run the meeting. Roll call vote Yes – 5 / No – 0 Berry abstained as he did not want to vote for himself, motion carried. DISCUSSION/DECISION CONCERNING FILLING VILLAGE PRESIDENT VACANCY RELATED MATTERS Hasler stated that Wis. Stat. sec 17.24 provides concerning vacancies in village offices: A vacancy in any elective village office may be filled by appointment by a majority of the members of the village board for the residue of the unexpired term or until a special election is held, as ordered by the village board, or an office may remain vacant or until an election is held. Normally what is done is an election is held by the members of the Village Board to fill the vacancy. It will take a vote of 4 trustees as it needs to be a majority of members of the board, not just a majority of the people that might be here. With that the Board needs to decide if they want to fill the vacancy, and if they want to fill the vacancy then how they want to do it. MOTION by Klicko, second by Waller to nominate Berry to fill the remainder of the term. Ashworth stated that she knows that this is a mess. She knows that they all received the resignation letter, but she found out this afternoon that Sonnenberg wanted to take his resignation back. Berry stated that when Sonnenberg turned in his resignation Reuter sat on it until the end of that day and never heard anything back, so she sent the letter out to all the Village Board members. Once that was done that set the precedent with state statutes where once that was acknowledged, you could not rescind that letter. Hasler stated that the state law as articulated by the Wisconsin Leage of Municipalities says once a resignation takes effect, the officer cannot with draw i t. T he common council or village board could reappoint the person who rescinds to the vacancy filled by the resignation. If you wanted Mr. Sonnenberg to return to the office, what you would do is you would appoint him to the position he resigned, but that likewise would take a motion and a second. Berry stated that he has thought about this for a few weeks now, he’s going to suggest that if he fills the president’s seat that will leave his spot open, he would propose that we fill his empty seat with Sonnenberg. We would switch committee members around. He knows Sonnenberg, he made a rash decision. He would like to give Sonnenberg the right to speak to us. Ashworth would like to see Sonnenberg be president again and rescind his resignation. Hutter would like to know, how did we get here? We left the last meeting with everyone in agreeance that we were going to follow the handbook and chain of command that was laid out. When Sonnenberg came here as the chain of command to talk with Public Works Klicko showed up, and it got a little heated, Sonnenberg got upset and quiet. Berry stated that unfortunately that’s not what we are discussing right now. The discussion is weather or not he will be the president. Oberbeck stated that we are either going to vote on the motion that was made a seconded originally, or Klicko would have to withdraw that motion. Hasler stated that at this point and time the first decision before them is to decide are you going to fill the vacancy, and then after you have decided that yes, you are going to fill the vacancy, then you need to decide how you are going to fill the vacancy. Berry stated that the way he sees it is if we are going to fill the vacancy , do we have a special election or just put him into that position, he believes that was the original motion was. Klicko stated or we could leave it vacant and fill it by appointment every night till the end of the term. Roll call vote to fill the vacancy, and to fill it with Berry, 3- Yes- Klicko, Waller , Berry / 3 – No- Oberbeck, Ashworth, Hutter. Berry stated that he wanted to speck, yes, Sonnenberg has done an awesome job as president . Yes, Sonnenberg found himself in the heat of the moment deciding something he now regrets. He feels Sonnenberg is still a huge asset to this community . He would love to see him stay on the Village Board. He thinks Sonnenberg would still do a phenomenal job as a trustee. That is why he voted yes for himself. So that we could turn around and still make Sonnenberg a Trustee. That’s why he voted yes. He would like to hear from all the trustees around the table. Oberbeck stated that he voted no to open this up for discussion , that’s the only reason he voted no. He felt everybody had something to say. As far as qualifications, time on the board, astra his VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 1, 2026, PAGE 2 vote has nothing to do with who he thinks the better candidate is. In all honesty he feels that is for the polls. He doesn’t think it should be up to us. Ashworth voted no because it was in the heat of the moment. Mistakes were made. She feels we need to go back to working together . Not throwing somebody under the bus in the heat of the moment. She would just like to see us all work together. Klicko feels he made his position clear. Waller has mixed feelings. He likes both gentlemen. He is just going to keep his opinion to himself. Hutter agrees, he likes both Berry and Son nenberg. He thinks they have both done a phenomenal job. Sonnenberg is the one who convinced him to run for Trustee. He would be ok if we came to the conclusion to appoint Sonnenberg as Trustee, then he would change his vote. He would be ok with that. Berry asked Sonnenberg if he would like to speak to the Village Board? Sonnenberg stated that it was in the spur of the moment when he did this. It’s not something he’s proud of. Not something he would look forward to doing again. But you guys have to do what you feel is best for the community. And if it’s not him being up there then that’s fine. Because we have a long way to go. We have a lot of things to work on . We need to continue working on those. What he takes a lot of pride in is all he was able to do for his community. He wants everyone to know that he has made mistakes, afterwards to look at that and think about that and maybe that wasn’t what he should have done. He woul d like to finish his term and continue to work with everyone on the board. He over reacted, he’s not making excuses. Hutter asked Sonnenberg if he would except a Village Trustee spot? Sonnenberg replied he would have to think about that. If they don’t feel he’s best for the Village of Friendship that’s fine, but he’s not going away. He was coming to these meetings for 4 years before he ever ran for a n office. That was preparation that he felt he needed to do in order to prepare himself. Berry asked if anybody has any questions for Sonnenberg? Hutter asked if it would be Berry’s intent to have Sonnenberg fill the empty Trustee spot? Hasler stated that is a decision for the board to make. Klicko stated that he could appoint him and the board would have to approve him. Berry stated that any of us can do that, but it will need to go on next month’s agenda. Oberbeck stated that in his 15 years here in this community of Friendship one thing is clear whether it’s been a property owner or board related, this community has always been about second chances rather than zero tolerance and his vote will reflect that. MOTION by Klicko, second by Waller to nominate Berry to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term, roll call vote, yes - Klicko, Waller, Hutter, Berry / no- Oberbeck, Ashworth, 4-yes and 2 -no motion passed. MOTION by Hutter, second by Oberbeck to fill the vacant position at next month’s meeting, roll call vote 6 - Yes / 0 - No, motion carried APPROVAL OF MAY 4, 2026, BOARD MEETING MINUTES MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Waller to approve May 4, 2026, Village Board minutes, motion carried. TREASURER REPORT General Water Sewer April 1, 2026, Balance 162,840.87 275,738.67 23,022.98 April Receipts 31,108.50 82,801.17 22,369.89 April Disbursements 75,253.47 85,442.44 38,925.54 April 30, 2026, Balance 118,695.90 273,097.40 6,467.33 LGIP #1 TIF $1,072,925.83 – LGIP #9 ARPA $0.45 – Capital Project Checking $34,280.53 - Building Fund $ 75,000.00 – Money Market $1,646.91 – CDBG Working Fund $13, 857.48 - LGIP #6 Park/Beach $46,560.89 – 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 $226,070.04 - LGIP #4 Water Replacement Fund $ 401,961.99 – LGIP #8 Water Debt Reserve Fund $ 81,495.27 – Sewer LGIP#2 Special Redemption Fund $ 83,809.03 - LGIP#5 Sewer Replacement Fund $57,395.38 – LGIP#7 Sewer Debt Reserve Fund $66,259.34 MOTION by Klicko, second by Oberbeck to approve treasurer report, motion carried. PAYING OF BILLS MOTION by Klicko, second by Oberbeck to approve May vouchers 28230 - 28272 in the amount of $59,894.41, motion carried. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 1, 2026, PAGE 3 CITIZEN INPUT No citizen input ROPORT FROM COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE RICK PEASE IF IN ATTENDANCE Pease stated that for anyone who hasn’t heard he was elected County Board Chair the end of April, so he’s been kinda busy. He talked with the board a few months back about leachate. That is something that is big for the county right now. They just recently approved half a million dollars for the engineering for the leachate project out at Solidwaste. They tabled the other portion of the 7 million dollars they will need to build the osmoses building to build the osmoses system out there until next month. A few of the things that will help pay for that is the DNR has a fund that could cover up to 70% of the cost if we have all our paperwork in by the 7th of September. The other thing that’s good is if they do take that loan out right now the DNR charges x amount of dollars per ton, they could use $5.70 of it back to help pay for that loan. Last year he thinks the numbers were $200,000 they paid per ton, so they could get that back to pay for that loan. He is encouraged that hopefully the board will go with the osmoses system, the other two systems one was in the 8-million-dollar range, and the other one was in the 7.5-million-dollar range. You’ll see that come forward at the next County Board meeting. Klicko asked what the deal is with the rocket launcher at the airport? Pease said he thought the same thing. He was told that they are used by Volt Field or Macoy for practice. They are scaled to the exact size and are used for target practice. There is one by 11th Ave. and one by the runway. UPDATE/ADOPTION ON ECMAR RESOLUTION MOTION by Berry, second by Klicko to approve the ECMAR Resolution and adopted it, motion carried. DISCUSSION ON DONATING TO THE FIREWORK Berry stated that we have done it every year for many years. MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Waller to approve donating $1,000 to the fireworks, motion carried. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT BY CHAIRMAN BERRY a) Citizen input There was no citizen input. b) Discussion on Website links There was some discussion with Trustee Hutter on website links, he will be taking care of some of that on his personal website. c) Discussion & Possible Action on: Cross-Connection Control with HydroCorp It was the consensus of the Committee to approve the Cross-Connection Control program. MOTION by Berry , second Oberbeck to go with HydroCorp for the Cross -Connection Control Program for 4-years, motion carried. d) Discussion on letter from American Legion Red Cloud Post 250 Schultz and the building inspector met , and the building inspector felt it would be fine for them to build it in sections as they had discussed at the board meeting . It was the Committees consensus to go ahead. MOTION by Berry, second by Oberbeck to let the American Legion Red Cloud Post 250 build it in stages, motion carried. e) Discussion & Possible Action on: ATV/UTV Ordinance It was tabled until we could have our joint meeting with the City of Adams. f) Public Works Directors Report Schultz stated that the sidewalk at ACEC has been fixed. We received a bid for $250.00 from Hillers to do that. He also fixed the storm sewer on CTY J and Grand Street. She has talked to the owner of Family Affair Restaurant. He has a plan to put up concrete bearers in the back to keep the sand from washing down. She asked him to put up a silt fence as he’s waiting so the sand doesn’t wash out. And he has done that. She talked with a guy who is interested in buying one of the damaged light poles to use to make a flagpole. It will go on the Public Works agenda to discuss. The lines at the park, beach and the hall have been given a fresh coat of paint. We have been getting complaints about parking at 207 East Lake Street again. She was told about someone sleeping in his vehicle . She contacted the landowner and he said that if anyone sees anyone there, they should call the Sheriff’s Department because no one has permission to be on the property. So, she let the brother know that he needed to wake up and leave the property. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 1, 2026, PAGE 4 The bathrooms at the park and the beach have been closed. They are waiting on parts from the plumber. She is hoping to have them fixed by this week. There was a guy that emailed us today that would like to do some volunteer work. She doesn’t know how the village does that. She doesn’t know if for liability reasons she can do that. She thinks it is probably community service. Berry stated that if it is community service does that liability fall on the county? Hassler stated that it would depend on what we have him doing. If the person is engaged in some kind of a program, he would like to know more about the program. If it’s just some person walking in off the street who says that they would like to help, he would be inclined to say they should find somebody else. Schultz said that we have a bad hydraulic leak on the loader. Someone is coming tomorrow to fix it. She is wondering if anyone has any ideas about the smaller pond at the park? It always looks so horrible. She was in there today with her waders on and it’s like quicksand. The culvert that is in there was completely plugged up with weeds. She pulled those out and got it flowing through there. It will go on the next Public Works agenda to see if they can come up with any ideas. Berry added that they talked about getting the fire truck in the 4th of July parade. Shultz said she would drive it. The other thing that was talked about was the curb stop on Superior Street. Schultz said that she did call Langes. They came out and verified that it has been welded numerous times. They will need to bring in a small backhoe to make another hole, because the original hole is starting to fill up with water. They will have to pump from the original hole to the new one to get the water out. Berry stated that the back story to this is at 509 Superior Street the property owner had a plumber come in and took it upon himself to mess around with our curb stop , they bent it and welded it. We have to go in and fix it, and they will get billed for it. Ashworth thanked Kiera for helping to put in the Bouyes at the beach . I took a lot longer than anyone thought it would. FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT REPORT BY TRUSTEE HUTTER Hutter stated that next year if we could prepare the day before it would be easier to put in the Bouyes so that we can utilize better the Lake Districts time. They started harvesting. They’ve only been out a few times. The lake looks pretty good. They are doing a lot of testing right now. He had a question for the Attorney, if we can prove that the nitrogen that is coming into the lake is coming from upstream is that a liability case, could we prove that? Hassler said that you would have to contact the DNR. He feels that would be treading on DNR territory. Hutter stated that the Lake District is doing a lot of that. He feels that we do a good job cleaning the lake up for the 4th of July every single year and then we just let it go to crap. He would like to bring that up as the village rep. He feels we should be more aggressive when it comes to cleaning up the lake. He feels the lake is a gigantic asset and feels that we have the best part on the lake here in the village with the beach, and a brand-new restaurant. FIRE DISTRICT REPORT BY TRUSTEE KLICKO Klicko stated they are working on an upgrade program for the brush trucks. They had a really big training turnout with the new facility they have with Mid-State. They are working on trying to bill insurance companies for the cost of the services at fires. It’s money that you pay on your homeowner insurance for protection that is available to the fire departments that bill for it. The new fire chief has been there for 2 years. AMBULANCE COMMITTEE REPORT BY TRUSTEE ASHWORTH Ashworth was not told when or where the meeting was, so she didn’t go. Reuter will find out and let her know. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF ALCOHOL BEVERAGE LICENSE FOR THE PERIOD OF JULY 1, 2026, THROUGH JUNE 30, 2027 - CORNER BAR AND GRILL, AMERICAN LEGION RED CLOUD POST 250, LAST CALL PUB & GRUB LLC, FAMILY AFFAIR RESTAURANT LLC MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Waller to approve Alcohol Beverage License, motion carried. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 1, 2026, PAGE 5 CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF MOBILE FOOD VENDING LICENSE – BRIARS FOOD PATCH, TOMMY’S TAMALES AND MORE LLC, ROCKY ROCOCO MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Hutter to approve Mobile Food Vending License, motion carried. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF WATER/SODA LICENSE – CORNER BAR AND GRILL, AMERICAN LEGION RED CLOUD POST 250, LAST CALL PUB & GRUB LLC, FAMILY AFFAIR RESTAURANT LLC, ROCKY ROCOCO, THE FRIENDLY BREW MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Ashworth to approve Water/Soda License, motion carried. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL OF CIGARETTE, TOBACCO AND ELECTRONIC VAPING DEVICE RETAIL LICENSE – TABEASE RETAIL LLC MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Ashworth to approve Cigarette, Tobacco and Electronic Vaping Device License, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE No Correspondence SET AGENDA ITEMS FOR JULY 6TH MEETING Update on East Lake Street Filling the Trustee vacancy Being of no further business to come before the board, MOTION by Oberbeck, second by Waller to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at 7:15. __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk