Public Works — Minutes

VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday December 17, 2025– Page 1 The Public Works Committee meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. in the Municipal Building. In attendance were President Jerry Sonnenberg, Chairman Bob Berry, committee members Jason Pierce and Melvin Waller; also in attendance was Public Works Director Beth Schultz. The agenda for the meeting was: 1} Roll Call 2} Approve meeting minutes from October 22 ,2025 3} Citizen input 4} Discussion & Possible action on: Volleyball nets at Friendship Park 5} Discussion & Ideas on Code Enforcement 6} Adams County M.S.I. minutes 7} Discussion & Possible action on: Water Testing at Friendship Beach 8} Discussion on Wastewater Comprehensive Facility Master Plan for City of Adams 9} Public Works Directors Report 10} Adjournment A majority of the Village Board may be present but no Board action is contemplated. Approval of October 22nd, 2025, Minutes Motion by Waller, second by Pierce to approve October 22nd, 2025, Public Works Minutes, motion carried. Citizen Input Berry wanted to apologize to the Public Works. He’s sorry no one showed them how to plow the snow, and where to put it. He talked them through how to plow around the corners by the sidewalks and where they could push the snow to. He stated that anyplace along Main Street that has parking, that snow has to be cleared off the parking spots. They talked about different ways that the snow could be cleared and how every snowstorm will be different. Schultz stated that if anyone had time, she would really appreciate it if they could show her where she could put the snow and leave it there as long as she wants or pile it up there, but you have to have it gone by the next day. She really needs that kind of information. Berry stated that he would come the next morning and drive around with them showing them where they could put snow and how the village normally does things. Discussion & Possible Action on: Volleyball nets at Friendship Park Sonnenberg stated that he had a conversation with Al Arndt from the American Legion. They’re talking about getting rid of their volleyball nets to put up a new building. He will keep in contact with Al and when they are ready to get rid of them ask them if the Village can work something out to get them. Discussion & Ideas on Code Enforcement Berry stated that we have all these ordinances and no one to enforce them. The key question is, what do we do? Pierce stated that Sheriff York called him one day asking about why we would go with the City Police when they feel they have it covered. Sonnenberg said that he also had a good conversation with Sheriff York. He stated that the county is more than willing to do our code enforcement, if that’s what we want to do. Berry stated that the other thing he looks at is when we were dealing with the East Lake Street property, we had many issues with the county over what needed to be done, and what they were willing to help with. Sonnenberg did mention that to him, and his response was he was doing what he felt was the right thing to do. Sonnenberg is going to meet with York to see what can be done. Berry said we need to be able to enforce our ordinances and be fair and consistent with everyone. Sonnenberg stated that they might not like it , but if we treat everybody the same way they can at least look at it from that perspective seeing that it’s everybody and not just me. He will set up a meeting with the Sheriff and get back to the Committee next month. Waller asked if the Director could send the residents letters like we have done in the past? Berry answered yes, and a lot of times that work s, but you’re always going to have that one resident that doesn’t want to follow the rules. We will wait to present something to the Board until we know for sure what we want to do Adams County M.S.I. minutes Berry stated that we received almost $10,000 towards street works. We can add to it and hopefully get enough to get Hillwood Lane done. The next street that is going to have to get something done is Park Street . That’s going to be one that we will have to coordinate with the City of Adams, because we can’t just come in and do PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday December 17, 2025– Page 2 the blacktop and then 2 years later, they come in and dig it up to replace the water and sewer lines. Discussion & Possible action on: Water Testing at Friendship Beach Berry stated that we have a current Memorandum of Understanding from the county. He feels it looks good, and he doesn’t see anything wrong with the wording. It would be his recommendation to get this signed when the time comes. The Village is responsible for the beach. He feels this is something that should be done . We run the beach, so we should be the ones testing the beach water. Motion by Berry , second by Waller to recommend to the Village Board that we sign the Memorandum of Understanding with Adams County and have them start testing our swimming area, motion carried. Discussion on Wastewater Comprehensive Facility Master Plan for City of Adams Berry stated that both him and Waller attended the meeting at the City of Adams. He was very impressed with Mr. Shekels with the communications and how he talked, letting everyone know what he’d been doing out there. It will be interesting to see how things will come about. And as he said that night when the time comes for working on water and sewer rates we need to be involved big time. Hopefully we can help negotiate with them. Our Village residents aren’t going to be happy, but like what was talked about that night, when you wait so many years to raise the rates then the time is going to come where you have to raise the rates 20%, 30%, 50%. If you can every other year raise your rates 5%, it’s not going to be near as hard on everybody. Two years ago, we raised our sewer rates, and that’s something we are going to have to do every other year. Soon the PSC should be getting back to us on our full-blown rate study, that’s going to tell us a lot about what we can do with our water. Our water fund isn’t as bad as the sewer fund, and it’s like that everywhere. Sonnenberg likes the idea of raising the rates incrementally so that the rates aren’t going up all at once, like when we were hit with 18% on water last year. Berry stated that Rural Water Association does a rate study every year, and the last one he saw we were sitting right in the middle. So, we aren’t as bad as other communities. Sonnenberg asked when the last time the sewer was raised? Berry was going to check with the office. (Office: The motion was made in the December 2023 Village Board meeting to raise sewer rates 17% for the 1st quarter of 2024 to stay on course with the City of Adams) Sonnenberg feels that once we get the results from the PSC on the water, we should almost be filling another one right after it to stay ahead of the game. We know that the City’s water will be going up again and that we need more advance notice so that we can put it into our budgets for the next year. They know they are going to raise it in 2026, but they don’t know how much. Pierce asked if this plan is going to happen in 2027, are they going to be addressing Park Street at the same time? Berry stated that this has nothing to do with Park Street. The plan will just be updating the treatment plant. Public Works Directors Report Schultz stated that they have been dealing with the aftermath of two big snow storms. She said they wanted to talk a little about the specks on getting a new truck. Sonnenberg stated that he had talked to Schultz earlier in the day. They are looking at getting a new truck for $26,000 - $30,000. He stated that the truck that we have right now has a 17-foot bed on it. Berry said he wouldn’t get anything bigger, but he wouldn’t go below a 16-foot bed either, with a good dump on it. It would be nice if we could find an automatic, most of what you can find now days will be an automatic verse a clutch. We need to make sure it would have some decent gross weight for it, with a decent box on it so it’s going to bump good. If it comes as a flatbed we could always have someone fabricate and put sides on it. Schultz said she wouldn’t mind either way. She really likes this truck, she just wishes we could get parts for it. Berry stated that the truck we get needs to be in good condition because it will take a lot of abuse between loads of snow and hauling brush. Sonnenberg stated he is going to start looking for one tonight for $26,000 - $30,000, 16-foot bed no smaller, it needs to be dump and try to find one that is automatic. Anything else? Berry stated that Sonnenberg should try to find one that is a hydraulic dump, not an electric dump . Electric dumps are fine for the little truck, but when you start hauling brush, and packed with heavy wet snow, an electric dump isn’t going to keep up. Waller stated that it would be nice if there was a receiver to pull the sewer Jetter. Schultz stated that she had a guy give her a call about doing an ice-skating rink on the lake. Berry stated that it would be a liability issue. Schultz stated that we are going to have to install a new meter at Villa Pines. She called Danial at Bager Meters PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday December 17, 2025– Page 3 today and gave him all the specs on it. He’s going to call her back with a price. She stated that it’s not working at all. Chris from the City of Adams is no longer going to be doing our testing. He had his name taken off at the DNR. He doesn’t want the responsibility anymore, or the headaches. They go on the 7th of January to take their test. They just need to make time to study. Schultz asked if anyone could give her some information on who takes care of our lights on J? She knows that they discussed this, and she called Alliant, but they haven’t come out. Pierce stated that they have RC electric change them out for us. Schultz stated that they spent most of the day yesterday with WRWA . They learn so much on the days that they come down and teach them. She s aid that WRWA were asking for letters that they could turn into the state so that they can continue to get funding, she said the Rebecca wrote a good letter that we could turn in from the Village of Friendship. They met two new guys that work for WRWA, and they told them about the wastewater convention that they are going to have in Green Bay. They are going to have it for two years in Green Bay, and then two years in La Crosse. Schultz would really like them to be able to go next year. Berry said that it was a great idea. They will learn so much at the convention. He went for almost 20 years. The classes they have there, and the things you’ll learn are just phenomenal. Schultz stated that they got on that conversation because one of her goals in 2026 is she would really like to get more playground equipment for the park . She loves our park but feels it could use more playground equipment. It’s almost 25 years old. We have this huge park, and very little playground equipment. One of the things that the guys from WRWA were saying is that if they go to Green Bay one of the classes is talking about grants that you can get to buy playground e quipment. They told her she could even contact the Green Bay Packers, or the Milwaukee Brewers and maybe they could help. Waller stated that ACEC helped donate the last time we got equipment. Schultz said she would love it if our park could be in a magazine someday. She feels our park is so beautiful and there is so much to offer , and WRWA is talking about putting up our park in their magazine . She thinks that would be so neat. Schultz stated that Miller and Bradford were here yesterday. They are going to come back on Monday. There is a female electrical plug end that they need to fix . They are going to look into the safety recalls and make sure all of them have been fixed. They haven’t been able to use the box plow because there’s so much pressure on it. She had Brent come one day to show her how to change them out. But when they were here, they said it’s not in the machine it’s in the couplers, so they are going to change them for us. When they come, they are bringing a guy with them that knows every inch of this machine and can show us different things, so that we will know how to use everything. Schultz stated that Rebecca had a meter come up today that she couldn’t get a reading on and she went back and couldn’t get a reading on it since October and it was getting a tamper warning. They went over there. The residents had redone their basement and had put up boxcar siding up in the basement wall and they cut it. So, we haven’t been able to get a reading since October. When they cut it, they did it right up by the meter, so now the meter is shot and the cellular endpoint. Schultz called Midwest Meter to find out how much a meter and endpoint is. We found out, and they are now getting an invoice for $175.00 for the endpoint and $105 for the meter. Pierce asked if Beacon sent us a notice when it was first tampered with ? Because he thought they were supposed to send us notices when things like this happened. Schultz didn’t know. She’ll look into it. But it now has a new meter and cell point tower. Adjournment Motion by Berry, second Pierce to adjourn the meeting, motion carried. ___________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk