Public Works — Minutes

VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday May 20, 2026– Page 1 The Public Works Committee meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. in the Municipal Building. In attendance were Chairman Bob Berry, committee members Melvin Waller, Justin Hutter; also in attendance was Public Works Director Beth Schultz, Trustee Ernie Klicko, Village Clerk Rebecca Reuter and Bruce “Bubba” Bain The agenda for the meeting was: 1} Roll Call 2} Approve meeting minutes from April 8, 2026 3} Citizen input 4} Discussion on Website links 5} Discussion & Possible Action on: Cross-Connection Control with HydroCorp 6} Discussion on letter from American Legion Post 250 7} Discussion & Possible Action on: ATV/UTV Ordinance 8} Public Works Directors Report 9} Adjournment A majority of the Village Board may be present but no Board action is contemplated. APPROVAL OF APRIL 8, 2026, MINUTES MOTION by Waller, second by Hutter to approve April 8, 2026, Public Works Minutes, motion carried. CITIZEN INPUT No Citizen Input DISCUSSION ON WEBSITE LINKS Hutter stated that he would like there to be a link on the village website with all the businesses in the Village of Friendship for easy access for anyone trying to find them. Klocko stated that we have a link to the county’s tourism site Visit Adams County that has a picture of Hutters resort on it. But they don’t have any information on it, so he must not have given them anything. Berry stated that would be the place to start. He told Hutter he should talk with them. He asked Hutter to put some more stuff together and bring it back to the Committee and we can keep it on the agenda. Hutter feels it would be nice if he could direct people to our website if they have more in their party than what he could host at his resort, and they could find some of the other places in the village that they could stay at. A Link would make that easier. DISCUSSION & POSSIBLE ACTION ON: CROSS-CONNECTION CONTROL WITH HYDROCORP Berry stated that he did n’t see anything that warranted concern, the price even went down a little. To him it’s the way to go with the cross connection, and the meters and everything that needs to be done now. Schultz asked if we wanted to keep getting billed every month or if we wanted to go to an annual payment. Berry thinks that annually would be easier. You can write one check, and you’re done for the year. MOTION by Berry, second by Waller to recommend to the Village Board to sign a 4-year contract, motion carried. DISCUSSION ON LETTER FROM AMERICAN LEGION POST 250 Schultz and the building inspector met Al at the Legion Hall, and Jeremy felt like it would be fine for them to build it in sections the way they had discussed. DISCUSSION & POSSIBLE ACTION ON: ATV/UTV ORDINANCE Berry stated that he wasn’t here at the initial meeting, but the clerk stated that the City of Adams would like to host a joint meeting with the Village of Friendship on June 15th after their council meeting. Reuter stated that at the last Board meeting the Sheriff asked that the ATV/UTV ordinance between the City of Adams and the Village of Friendship be the same between the two municipalities . So, they are inviting us to sit down and talk about what the two municipalities think we should do. Berry thinks it’s a good idea. We should meet with them and try to figure this out together, because we are right next to each other. Klicko asked if the goal is to adopt the county ordinance? Bain stated that is what the association would like to see. It would be a lot easier for education to the out of towners that come in if everyone had the same ordinance. They are looking for uniformity and to get Main Street opened. It will take traffic out of the interior streets so it’s not so busy in the residential areas Berry asked how the county’s ordinance differs from ours? Bain stated that there is quite a bit of difference. The association adopted the new county ordinance, and they took that same county ordinance and changed it wherever it said “Adams County” and we made it for the musicality. So the wording would be the same except where it says Adams County it would now PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday May 20, 2026– Page 2 say Village of Friendship. It speaks about open intoxicants, speed limits, state statutes. That’s enforceable stuff that the sheriff department can do something with. Klicko stated that it’s a little more comprehensive than our plan is. There’s nothing saying that we couldn’t keep our ordinance and adopt that one too. Berry thinks it’s a good idea, and we should set it up with the city to hold a joint meeting. Reuter will set it up with them. PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTORS REPORT Schultz stated that she had talked to Alliant Energy and they are looking at property on CTY J to put up a new substation. She suggested maybe the property that we own on top of the hill by Friendship Park. Klicko stated that a few years back they wanted to buy some land by the old dump, but the neighbors in the area didn’t want them there. Schultz stated that they thought that spot might work , but they were going to talk to someone at Moundview who owns the property next to ours and see if they could get the other lot right beside it. Tim Hintz is going to be here on the 29th to fix the hole by the storm sewer on CTY J & Grand Street. Fenners put a new wheel bearing in the Ram pickup, but the check Engen light is on. They told us that we will have to take it to the dealership to get fixed. None of the security cameras were working down at the park . She had Kruze come in. The po rt was bad. He put an 8 port in there right now and will come back when he gets a 4 port . All our cameras are now working. The silt fence by Family Affair is up. Family Affair is going to start working on their retaining wall on Saturday. She asked what the Committee would like her to do with the old brush truck? Berry said she should try to sell it and see if there are any buyers before trying to get scrap prices for it. Schultz will try selling it locally. Schultz stated that Mike Fenner called her the other day to give her a bid on fixing the small piece of sidewalk in front of ACEC, it came in at $1,611.00 because it’s a small job and they will have to order the concrete. Waller suggested that she get ahold of Dase concrete on the corners of N & J. Klicko stated that he fixed the curds for us a few years ago, and he does small jobs. Schultz said she will get a bid from him then. She didn’t tell Mike anything, just that she was going to have to bring it to the board. She wanted to know if anybody know s anything about the old firetruck? The 4th of July parade is coming up. Berry said before she does anything she needs to take it to Fenners and make sure the breaks are good. It has a clutch in it, it’s kind of a pain to drive, but it’s also a blast to drive it. It has a really cool siren on it; the kids just love seeing it in the parade. Klicko said it’s fun to drive, but it shifts hard. Berry thinks 100% we need to have it in the parade. She should take it out and drive it around. Schultz said she would get it into Fenners and have him look it over. She doesn’t mind driving it. The second week of June is when we are going to do hydrant flushing. Schultz stopped at the new house at 509 Superior Street, and he doesn’t have any water pressure. She took some pictures of the pipe coming up out of the ground. When she came back from her surgery, she had to have Dellwood Plumbing come and help get the water on because Kiera couldn’t get the water on. Reuter stated that when the building permit was first issued Brent when to find the curb stop to make sure he would be able to turn the water on when the time came , and everything was fine. Then as they were building the home, Brent had a problem with them moving the manhole cover to try and see where the water and sewer came in, and he had to tell them they were not allowed to do that. They also dug a trench from the home to the cu rb stop to hook up their water and had their plumber try to turn on our municipal water, again they were told that they cannot have their plumber turning on and off our municipal water. Schultz took pictures of the curb stop and as it comes out of the ground it’s all dug out around it and has about a 45-degree bend, he tried to say that our plumber did that the other day , and Schultz sated that No it was like that and he finally admitted that when they poured the cement slab there the concrete guy backed into it with the skid steer and bent it. So, she wanted to ask the Committee what to do because he doesn’t have any water pressure. Reuter stated that they bent it, but then had someone come in and weld it to try and fix the problem, and the valve can’t get turned on all the way because when the homeowner’s plumber was trying to turn on our water he stripped the bolt. Berry stated that then the whole thing is going to have to be replaced. That means turning the water off at the street, getting down and replacing the valve, and the homeowner should be charged for everything. They should be charged for the repairs, and he thinks they should be fined for this too. If you contact the PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday May 20, 2026– Page 3 PSC they would tell you the exact same thing. They will be charged for everything. We will have to hire a plumber to come in and do this work to fix everything, they are going to get a bill for it all. If they welded this right to the valve and striped the valve out this is the only fix , and that is probably why they don’t have any pressure because the valve isn’t opened all the way and it’s welded in place. Schultz stated that he wouldn’t give her the name of his plumber today , so she doesn’t know if he’s not licensed. She said they are also living in their camper. She asked them today if they were living there and he admitted that they were. So, she told them about our ordinance stating that they can only stay 14 days in a year and can’t live in the camper. The homeowner stated that there’s campers everywhere and people are living in them. She told him not for more than 2 weeks because we monitor that really well. Then he changed his story saying that they stay with their daughter every once in a while. She came back and talked to Reuter who gave her a form for a Plan Commission meeting if he wants to pay and try to get a conditional uses permit. She gave that to the homeowner but doesn’t know if he is going to do anything with it. She’s not sure what the Committee wants her to do about that, and how much time they want her to give them. He now knows and says that they are planning on living in the camper until Fall. She was in the house and all the y have is the 2x4’s up. She feels we are going to have a hard time getting them out of there. Berry stated that then we will have to get the Attorney involved with it. Get them out a letter right away. Then if nothing has happened in a month’s time, they will need to get a certified letter that they will need to sign for. Schultz stated that she did her first sanitary sewer survey. There were only two things that she was asked to fix, exercising our valves. She doesn’t know if they remember when they tried to exercise the valves, they found out that some of them are packed full of sand. They had talked about it before . She tried a shop vac, but it kept getting plugged up. So, she met with Steve’s Plumbing the other day and they are in the process of getting us an estimate of what it would cost to get them sucked out, and that way we could maintain them after that. For right now she has looked around to try and rent a vac truck, the county has one, but you have to pay for the guy, the truck, the trailer. She really wants to get these valves done. She needs to be able to operate them. Berry agreed that needs to be done. He remembers last Fall he talked to Steves Plumbing and at that time he didn’t have a vac truck, but they didn’t have one. But that was one of the areas that he was trying to expand to. Other than that Green Bay pipe is a nother vac company. When he worked for the City of Adams, they had Green Bay Pipe come down and do a lot of work at the sewer plant. Schultz said he is also going to give us an estimate on televising the sewer system this year. She is going to try to set up a 5-year, or 10-year plan so that we do a certain amount of section at a time, because we can’t afford to do the whole thing all at one time. Berry said that should keep them happy even with a Village our size , if you split it up into 4 different sections, that should keep the DNR happy. Schultz stated that other thing she needs to fix is well permits. Until that day she didn’t know anything about them. She learned a lot that day, and our DNR rep was very nice about it. We had 3 permits that should have been sent out, and 3 more that are coming due in August. She said to send them all out right now. The DNR rep has given Schultz a month to fix everything. We are starting to get phone calls about 207 East Lake Street again . Thay have an unregistered vehicle there, they are dropping garbage off on the ground, twice we have gotten phone calls about the property owners stepbrother sleeping in his van there. Berry stated that we should start with a letter. Send that out and hopefully it will work. Schultz stated that Mark Weber the harvest operator is going to help us put the buoys in at the lake on the 21st. Also, the flotation device is mounted, and a sign put on it down at the beach. Hutter stated that if we needed help keeping the beach area cleaned up this year, we could utilize his boys, and then we would just get an invoice from Friendship Island Resort to the Village. He wouldn’t even care about making money on it. Berry stated that because this would fall under a municipal area this would fall into different regulations. Adjournment Motion by Berry, second Waller to adjourn the meeting, motion carried. Meeting ended at 6:29 p.m. ___________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk