Public Works — Minutes

VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Thursday, August 28, 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, Attorney Joseph Hasler, and Clerk Rebecca Reuter. The agenda for the meeting was: 1} Roll Call 2} Approve meeting minutes from July 23rd ,2025 3} Citizen input 4} Discuss ordinance for food trucks/mobile venders 5} Discuss possible location of handicap parking 6} Discuss water testing at Friendship Lake 7} Discuss Village Hall rental agreement 8} Discuss stormwater infiltration into the lake 9} Discuss sign at Friendship Park 10} Discuss the Yellow plow truck 11} Discuss Office Trailer for WisDot engineer 12} Adjournment A majority of the Village Board may be present but no Board action is contemplated. Approval of July 23rd, 2025, Minutes Motion by Waller, second by Pierce to approve July 23rd, 2025, Public Works Minutes, motion carried. Citizen Input Joe Vassau – Co-Chair, Friendship Lake Advisory Group asked what was going on with the No Fishing sign, and the raft? Berry stated that it is on the Village Board agenda to discuss. Vassau then asked about the aerators? Berry stated that it isn’t on tonight’s agenda, so we won’t be discussing it. Berry has the paperwork, but he was given it too late to have it put on the agenda. It will go on the next Public Works Committee meeting. Vassau again wanted to know about the raft? Reuter stated that the No Fishing sign and the raft will be on the Village Board agenda, along with a letter that she received from Vassau stating that the Friendship Lake Advisory Group along with the Friendship Lake Board have agreed to accept the Village Boards vote on August 4th, with regards to the request for a raft at the public beach. And no further requests from our committees will be brought forth for further discussion on this issue. Vassau stated that there was discussion about putting life rings/saver rings at the beach. Berry stated that’s news to him, and the rest of the Committee agreed that they had never heard of that being brought up. Vassau stated that it was brought up at the Village Board meeting. The Committee doesn’t remember that being talked about. Vassau then asked about the wash down, and wanted to know if anything had happened with that? He stated that he gave Sonnenberg information on it and contacted Family Affair restaurant. Family Affair wanted a signed contract stating that the Village would supply water and electric. He wanted to know if anybody has done anything with that? Berry stated not that he is aware of, that’s all news to him that this was happening or that someone here was contacting Family Affair. This is the first that this has been brought to his attention. Vassau stated that he went to Family Affair and talked to them with the construction of their new building. The sooner someone talks to them; the sooner they can put a stub in for electric and a stub in for water and they can be separately metered. All they want is an agreement saying the Village will pay for the electric and water. Schultz – wanted to let everyone know that the week of September 22-25 that Public Works will be at the DNR school. And the week before that they will be flushing fire hydrants. Discuss ordinance for food trucks/mobile venders Berry stated that the attorney has put together an ordinance for the food trucks, and everyone should PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Thursday, August 28, 2025– Page 2 have a copy of it. He asked Attorney Hasler if he would go over the highlights of it. Hasler stated that he would highlight a few things. The first thing you see when you look at the ordinance is that we have some definitions. The first one that shows up is fixed food establishments, you might ask yourself what are they doing in this ordinance? The reason they’re there is because there’s a requirement in the ordinance that mobile food operations can’t be any closer than 200 feet to fixed food establishments. Any person that wants to run a food truck will need to get a license from the Village Clerk weather it is on public or private property. It does not apply to events. The Clerk will be issuing the license after she has reviewed the application, and background inspection reports that she can find. Any applicant that is denied a license can have the opportunity to appeal that denial in front of the Village Board. There will be an annual fee that will be set by resolution by the Village Board. There is a provision that requires venders to have and maintain proof of liability insurance. The license will not be transferable. They are allowed at all locations in the village as long as they maintain appropriate distance from crosswalks and curbs. The person who is operating the truck must remain on site at all times. They are not allowed to connect to light polls, utility polls or any public sources of water/sewer or electricity. The ordinance calls for two sets of operating hours Sunday – Thursday 8:00 a.m. -9:00 p.m. , then Friday – Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m., he feels it would make more sense to make it one set of hours. Mobil food hours will not be restricted on privet property. Hasler stated that if the audience had any questions he would be happy to try and answer them. Rosemary Pittsley from State Farm Insurance said she had a few questions. She knows that the ordinance from the Town of Rome has the 200-foot restrictions on food trucks, she believes we all need to work together. She said there was a gentleman that owns a bar in Mauston who hires a food truck to park in front of his bar, and he says it is fabulous. He can give one of his people that day off because they don’t have to prepare the food. The food truck hands out tokens so people can go in and have a beverage. She’s not 100% sold on making a foot perimeter that this food truck can’t be that close. She thinks it might hurt one of the establishments that are using them very successfully right now. Hasler stated that he believes that the City of Adams is looking at 100 feet, not 200 feet. The other provision that we have in this ordinance is that it provides that the requirement concerning distances can be waved with the written consent of the owner of an adjacent fixed food location, so that in the situation that you are describing if there is a relationship the distance limitation is going to be waved. Pittsley’s second question is if a food truck is on her private parking lot, do they need to have a permit? Hasler stated that they would need a permit, and her consent. Dee Rueqe asked if the Board would consider changing it to 100 feet. The reason she asks is because the American Legion is vey close, and that is for the military, she thinks why wouldn’t we support that and go with 100 feet. Hasler said that it would be an easy fix if that’s what the Board wanted. Al Arndt stated that the American Legion measured from Corner Bar (that is the closest business to them) to the north end of their building it is 200 feet. The question he has is the alleyway behind it is a hair closer at 175 feet. If they have a function where they have 3, 5, 8 trucks come in….he doesn’t see that happening but if we’re going to pass an ordinance then we don’t want to keep changing it. Would we be able to park up that close? The alleyway, the parking in the back and the side of the building could be used if they had an event if we reduced it. Berry stated that if the city was going with 100 feet, then he thinks we should also, just because we are so connected. He would not have a problem changing it to 100 feet. Hasler stated that he feels the appropriate motion when we get to that point would be to recommend the approval of the draft ordinance with the changes that we have talked about. Arndt second question is if they are open past closing time anyone on the Board could enforce that, because they are the ones approving the license, and if they violate that you could restrict their license next time they apply for it. If they are on public property. Hasler said if he’s understanding correctly Arndt is saying that the primary enforcement tool that the Village may have would be if there were an operator that was routinely ignoring the restrictions or limitations that we would ask them to abide by, when they come back a year later we have grounds to deny them a license because they violated our ordinance. It would be important in that regard to have a good paper trail that they have been advised, and noted that we have repeatedly have asked you to be closed by 9:00 and on all these occasions we’ve seen you still operating at 9:15. We just want you to know that when you come back for a license a year from now that might be grounds for us to instruct the Clerk to deny that permit. Reuter asked if the language could read that the license runs from June 30 of the year to July 1st of the following year. That is how our other license’s read. MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to recommend the adoption of the ordinance with the change of 100 feet instead of 200 feet, also make the change to set the times to Sunday-Saturday 8:00 a.m. -10:00 PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Thursday, August 28, 2025– Page 3 p.m., recommendation of $35.00 a year license fee, and a $5.00 water/soda license fee, with the language added that the license runs from June 30 of the year to July 1st of the following year, motion carried. Discuss possible location of handicap parking Berry stated that when he has looked at things he feels our two options would be on the corners. Right now, if we were to put it, the first stall closest to Main Street there is already a handicap ramp going up there so we wouldn’t have to do anything, but you’re going to be taking up a lot of space there too. We would have to set it up where they aren’t getting out on Main Street. The other option would be on the other end where J&Bs store is but there is no handicap ramp there so we would have to do some concrete work and have a ramp put in up there. He knows that J&Bs doesn’t have a ramp going into their building, so he would have to do something. Arndt stated that they were working on putting in a ramp but that they can’t do that until they get some kind of handicap parking out front because everybody parks their vehicles there and they go up so far that no one with a wheelchair could get by. Hasler asked if that ramp would be constructed on Village right of way? Arndt said what they would like to do is take the steps out of J&B and make a ramp there going down to the sidewalk. They would have to verify that it wouldn’t be too steep of an incline. But from the sidewalk they can’t do anything because the cars are up so far, you have less than two feet. Berry asked if they are going to build the ramp down to the street or alongside the building? He doesn’t feel they can get the slope they need if they go down to the street. Arndt stated that he believes that’s why they wanted to take out the front steps, so they could move the entrance back and get the slope that they need. Berry thinks that Sonnenberg, Shultz and himself need to go look at B&Js to look and see what they want to do and see how we can move it forward. Discuss water testing at Friendship Lake Berry stated that Adams County does do water testing on all the county lakes, or if they own a dam on it. He doesn’t understand why they don’t test all the lakes. Vassau stated that it’s $180.00 a season, but it’s going up to $200.00 Pierce stated that we’ve never paid for testing before, right? He asked Vassau if they have to test for any reason? Vassau stated no, but that it is for E.coli, and according to what he’s been told it’s never been tested. There are only a handful of lakes around here that don’t get tested. The Lake District put it in its budget for this upcoming year so it could be paid out of the lake management budget instead of out of his pocket. But being that the village owns the beach he feels we should be the ones to pay for it. The reason he did this is because he feels it’s public safety. And because of the runoff that goes into the lake. Berry stated that most of the runoff isn’t going into the main lake. Most of the runoff is going into the slough that goes right down the channel to the dam and then downstream. Pierce stated that we supply the beach, he doesn’t think we should also be in charge of the testing too. We’ve never really done it before. He gets the importance to it. If we supply the beach, then maybe someone else could pay for the testing. It seems like there’s a lot of wants coming to us lately. Berry’s opinion is we probably should be doing the testing, we own the beach, we run the beach, we take care of it. He was kinda surprised that we never have. He was under the assumption that we did. Especially when you get to late July and August when you have your hot weather and the water temp goes up and things start getting a little more on the green side. Vassau stated that he has a contract from the county that needs to be signed by whoever is paying it. If we would like a copy of the contract, he could send it over for us to look at. Waller thinks we should see the contract and go from there. Sonnenberg thinks it’s a good idea to do it, and as long as we’re responsible for the beach then we should pony up. MOTION by Berry, second by Waller, to recommend to the Village Board that we take over the water testing for E.coli through the county and get a contract set up through them, motion carried. Discuss Village Hall rental agreement Reuter stated that Schultz and her worked to put together a rental agreement. There are some residents that rent the Village Hall, and they are really good about cleaning up after themselves, they are great. But then we get residents that put tape on the walls, there’s little holes all over the walls from thumbtacks, There’s constant tape that is being stuck to everything . Sometimes they just leave it trashed. At a Village Board meeting a few years back there was talk about putting together an agreement that people have to PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Thursday, August 28, 2025– Page 4 sign when they rent the hall. Schultz and Reuter put one together. She feels there needs to be a deposit. Sometimes the Public Works come in the hall for an hour or two cleaning up everything left behind, when they should be doing other things. And if they have to do that then we should get to keep a deposit to cover the cost. They can use blue painters’ tape that won’t stick to the walls, so they can still hang stuff up. Hasler stated that he feels we absolutely need to have an agreement. What they have put together is the barebones of what’s needed. Schultz stated that, as for an example, someone poured bacon grease down the sink, so we had to have a plumber come in after we worked on it for over a week trying to clear the drain. We didn’t make any money on that rental. She feels we should have something for down at the park also. They just got done painting the pavilion and they took out staple, after staple, after screw, nails. Reuter stated that the only problem with that is there are people that will have a birthday party at the park and not rent it through us, but in the Hall, we know exactly who did it and didn’t do it. Schultz stated that they check it every day so she thinks they would know. She feels if we are only going to charge $50.00 for the park, and $100.00 for the Hall and then we need to spend another $150.00 - $200.00 to repair it we aren’t making any money. Hasler feels that there should be a security deposit, but if there’s extraordinary cost over and above and we feel that the user is both collectable and worth a hill you want to die on then we are going after more. Berry stated that it’s a simple matter of them giving us a check and we don’t cash it unless we absolutely have to. They are going to get the deposit back. He feels a week would be a decent time limit. Reuter asked what a good cancellation policy would be? Berry feels like most places like a doctor’s appointment if you cancel within 48 hours you don’t get charged for it. Does everyone feel like that would be a good number to put down? Schultz feels that 48 hours is good. We probably won’t get it rented again but it makes people stop and think. Berry stated cancellations made 2 business days prior will receive a full refund, cancella tions after 2 business days will not get their money back. Pierce stated getting back to the deposit, how often does the office go to the bank? Reuter stated that they go weekly. MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce, to make the recommendation to the Village Board to go with the agreement at $100.00 to rent the Hall with $100.00 security deposit , with a refund of the deposit within 7 days, cancellation in 2 business days they receive a full refund, less than that they forfeit the rental fee, motion carried. Discuss stormwater infiltration into the lake Berry stated that some of the research he’s done shows that some communities use bags on the inlet to the lake that will collect everything, so it won’t go down in there. You could do that with the newest one. The oldest one is setting right at water level, and he doesn’t think there’s any way you can put anything on that. You could maybe put one on at the park. Vassau asked about the retention ponds in the City of Adams. Berry stated that they don’t flow to this side of town. Vassau stated that at some point the state needs to be responsible to help with this issue . Hwy 13 is their’s, and HWY 13 has a load of inlets. It also has run off at the beach, there’s also a discharge line going into the north side of the dam. At the bottom of the hill by the dam there’s also a discharge, possibly two going into the little pond right after the dam . The state needs to be responsible for the use of salt, beet juice, and sand, not to mention all the byproducts that are picked up on the roads that end up on the lakes. He has talked with some engineers and there are filtration baskets that you can put in an inlet, and yes you do have to clean the filters, but anything would be better than just letting it flow. He was going to go and start checking with the state. Berry stated that they are going to collect bottles, cans and other debris. Vassau asked if the sewers have ever been videotaped? He feels that’s a simple thing to do. It would be able to show you the areas that there might be a leak. He feels it would go quick, and it would be money in the bank, it would show you if there are any problems. Berry stated that they would have to be jetted out and cleaned in order to videotape, and that’s not very cheap. He thinks maybe some place to start is finding out in the City of Madison how they are taking care of it. They have been working on this for years. Maybe we need to check with them to see how they did it. Other communities have had to do this; we need to find out how and what steps they took. He doesn’t think there ’s much state funding left out there. We need to do m ore research and figure out what is feasible. He doesn’t think that since he’s been on the board that storm drains have ever been cleaned out. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Thursday, August 28, 2025– Page 5 Pierce stated that he knows that they did Quincy Street one time. But it was 7 or 8 years ago. That’s because it kept backing up and flooding the street. Berry stated that he needs to make some p hone calls and see how much som e of this might cost , then see if it’s something we can work into the budget for next year. Discuss sign at Friendship Park Schultz gave the Committee a quote from Gawronski Signs to replace the sign at the Friendship Park . It came in at $625.00. She feels they are really reasonable. Berry stated that the price looks really good to him. Schultz stated that the quote is just for the sign, not the post or anything else that will need to be replaced. Berry stated the sign looks bad and needs to be replaced. You can’t even read it. This would come out of the parks budget. The Committee agreed to have the sign done. Discuss the Yellow plow truck Schultz stated the yellow plow truck is going in on September 8th to Fenner’s garage. He would be refabricating the plow. He would like to meet with Waller if he has the time to discuss the plow with him. Fenner’s has not given her a quote on it. But Universal was $7,500 and now they are $10,000 the price went up that much. The Committee also talked about setting the Ram truck up with the plow from A-F Motors for $3,533.40. All Committee members agreed. Discuss Office Trailer for WisDot engineer Berry stated that WisDOT would like to put a trailer behind our building as they work on the bridge on HWY J. We’ve done it in the past and we’ve never had a problem with it. Reuter stated that they would pay $300 a month in rent like they have done in the past. It would be for September, October and November so a total of $900. MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to recommend to the Board to agree to let the WisDOT park an office trailer behind the Village Hall, motion carried. Schultz stated that they have been doing a lot of painting at the park, including the pavilion on the outside, and some of the inside. Some of the boards in the pavilion will need to be replaced probably next year. They will stain the board on the bridge next. We have a group of people in our community that want to celebrate National Day of Service and are planning on staining the picnic tables for us on September 12th. We have the egal back up at the park and she’s hoping to get the bear back up soon. They did a live edge around all the firepits, so the whole 6x6 square is out there now. Then they made a live edge around the sidewalk to the bathrooms. She would like to rent an edger from Ace to do the sidewalk out front. Today they did most of the right side of Main Street cleaning up the weeds on the sidewalk. Berry gave her some kudos on the marry-go-round, he stated that it is fabulous. We need to set a date for our next Public Works meeting. We were contacted by the County and Cynthia Haggard the County Administrator would like to be put on the next Public Works agenda. The Committee decided on September 17th at 5:00 P.M. in the Village Hall. Adjournment Motion by Waller, second Pierce to adjourn the meeting, motion carried. Meeting ended at 6:24 ___________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk