Public Works — Minutes

VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday, June 25, 2025– Page 1 The Public Works Committee meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. in the Public Works 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 and Nadine Ashworth. The agenda for the meeting was: 1} Roll Call 2} Approve meeting minutes from May 28th, 2025 3} Citizen input 4} Update of meter installs 5} Discuss Fire hydrant on Moundview Dr. 6} Discuss sinkhole at ACEC 7} Discuss Village equipment and vehicles 8} Discuss crack filling estimates 9} Discuss tree removal on Park Street 10} Discuss tall grass letters sent out 11} Discuss stormwater infiltration into the lake and creek downstream 12} Adjournment A majority of the Village Board may be present but no Board action is contemplated. Approval of May 28th, 2025, Minutes Motion by Waller, second by Pierce to approve the May 28th, 2025, Public Works Minutes, motion carried. Citizen Input Waller stated that on the corner of Grand and 4th St. on the southeast corner there is a bush he thinks it’s on our road right-of-way. It is so blinding, especially when it leafed out this spring. You can’t see to the south until you are right out in the road. He would like to see it out of there. Someone was cleaning the yard last year, and they took half of the bush down on the property side of it, but they left the road part there yet. Schultz will try talking to them about it to see if they’re willing to do it. If they are not willing to do it, but they are willing to let the Village do it if it’s a safety hazard. Waller feels it’s an encroachment on the corner. Nadine Ashworth stated that Friendship Lake District would like a boat wash by the beach, and riprap. Berry stated that they used to have it out there, but they got rid of it for liability issues. The boat washing station we can look into, there are options out there. Ashworth stated they also want sign with no fishing. Berry wants to know where the sign would go. If it would be in the grassy area? We need more information before we can put up a no fishing sign. Waller feels it should be the land owners responsibility to put up no trespassing signs on the edge of his property. Berry stated that there are regulations in Wisconsin for fishing near beaches especially those designated for swimming. Fishing is generally prohibited in marked swimming areas. That they can look more into it and go from there. Sonnenberg stated that as we are moving along on East Lake Street property, we will need to get ahold PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday, June 25, 2025– Page 2 of somebody to do the razing. Joe has sent us some contractors who have done it for other municipalities. He asked Schultz if she wanted to get ahold of them or if he should? He just wants to make sure that when the date and the time comes up that we are ready. Berry stated that after the 30 days we need to put it out on bids. Waller stated that when he worked for Fenner’s when they had a job like that with vehicles that were questionable, they would be impounded until the titles were figured out. Update of meter installs Schultz said that we are finally done! ACEC has not been changed yet, and the reason for that is that it isn’t old enough that it needs to be changed. We have time to decide on who’s going to pay for what. She will just keep it as a manual read for now, because she does the church across the road anyways. Berry stated that she will still want to get it in writing from the PSC who is responsible for paying to replace the plumbing, because down the road it will need to be replaced. Then they can be shown that they are responsible for the plumbing. The Village is responsible for the meter, but they have to make plumbing accessible to that meter. Pierce asked why we are still doing a manual read on the church meter and why it wasn’t changed over? Schultz stated that there is a little discrepancy there because she doesn’t know what meter to read. There is a little black box on the outside on the meter. The last time that her and Tony went in there they had to have someone come and unlock the door and let them inside. So, there is one of our new meters with a cell tower on it inside. And that’s the meter reading that she took, but Becca said it was the wrong reading. She called and talked to Brent, and he also said that we use the meter on the outside of the church. Schultz stated that we had 3 meters that are installed that we couldn’t get a reading on this quarter. They came back as we didn’t own them, we did not have rights to these meters. Becca has gotten ahold of Midwest Meters to have them straighten things out. But other than that, the water reads went well. Discuss Fire hydrant on Moundview Dr. Schultz stated that the Fire Hydrant flushes got done. The hydrant on Moundview Dr. was the only one that they could not get the valve open. She didn’t know who to call. So, she called Brent, and he told her to call Rural Water Works. She has not been able to hook up with Annie yet. Berry asked why we would call them? Schultz answered that she doesn’t know who maintains our hydrants. Berry stated that we maintain our fire hydrants. Schultz stated that Chris from the City of Adams tried to open it and he couldn’t even get half a turn out of it. Berry stated that what you normally would do is close that valve with the pipe going to it. You close that valve so you can shut the water off. You take the fire hydrant apart and clean it, grease it, and put it back together. Schultz stated that she has no idea what she’s doing when it comes to that. Berry stated that she can reach out to Rural Water Works and they can help, or we can reach out to the City of Adams and have them show her how to do it. Schultz stated that it is black bagged right now. It is the one at the very far end one with the 3 yellow post around it. She did call the fire department to let them know that it’s not working and she will let them know when it’s fixed. Berry stated that she should have a big gray plastic suitcase that has all kinds of hydrant parts in it. Schultz asked if that’s all for the guts of a fire hydrant? Berry replied that parts of it, y es. He stated that if it’s old enough that it can’t be fixed then we need to think about hiring someone to come in and put a new fire hydrant in for us. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday, June 25, 2025– Page 3 Schultz stated that she would talk to Chris and see if he could help her. Discuss sinkhole at ACEC Schultz stated that she has Fenner’s coming out to look at the sinkhole because it’s right by our manhole. Mike from Fenner’s said what’s happening is the concrete that goes into their shop, and there’s PVC pipe and concrete around there. And she thinks he said the concrete was busted and the water is coming back up through there and causing a sink hole. Pierce asked if that’s the one that is right off the driveway on Roberts Street? He thinks that we had work done there a few years ago because it was sinking in there. Discuss Village equipment and vehicles Schultz stated that something is wrong with the Ram truck. It wouldn’t start out in the shop . She had Fenner’s come over and they thought it was the starter , but it turns out it’s not the starter. She went to Kwik Trip today to grab a sandwich , shut the truck off, came out and it wouldn’t start . She forgot her phone at the shop. She called Fenner’s up, he towed it back in and said that he thinks this has probably been an issue that has been going on for a while with it. He said that if we bought it from a dealer that he would recommend that we take it back to the dealer that we bought it from. She told him that we didn’t buy it from a Dodge dealer. And he said that he would recommend that she take it to a Dodge dealer and have them look at it because there is something more going on that’s not the start er. He said it could possibly be something with the computer, something electrical. She said there is a solenoid in there that could be bad. Pierce asked if we got any kind of 30-day warranty? The Committee said no. Schultz doesn’t know where the Committee wants her to take it. Just a recommendation, she really doesn’t have time to take it over there if anybody would have the time to run it over, she would be more than grateful. Pierce stated that for his work they take everything to New Lisbon. They have tried others, but they just really like the New Lisbon Dodge dealer. Waller and Sonnenberg said they could take her over, just let them know when. Pierce stated that in the past instead of putting equipment on the Wisconsin surplus auction site they put an ad in the paper and parked the equipment out front, and people could stop and look at it and put in their bids. The Committee agreed with that. Discuss crack filling estimates Fahrner put in a bid for Raymond and Grand Street for $6,307.00. Berry made the recommendation to go with Fahrner, Waller second it. The Committee will bring it before the board. Discuss tree removal on Park Street Schultz stated that she wanted to bring this up because there are 12 dead elm trees on Park Street. It’s just a matter of time before they come down. She was able to get an estimate to see what it would cost to get them taken down, but it is quite high. Waller feels we should wait until we replace the road and then we can clean them up. Discuss tall grass letters sent out Schultz stated that she only had to give out 1, and they mowed their grass the very next day. She has noticed that on Hillwood Lane there is a house where the grass is getting tall. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING – Wednesday, June 25, 2025– Page 4 Discuss stormwater infiltration into the lake and creek downstream Berry s tated that he added this because on e of the Lake Distri ct committees has been looking in to stormwater infiltration into the lake and creek downstream . He was hoping someone from the Lake District would be at the meeting to talk about it. The Lake District thinks it’s causing a lot of weeds in the lake. The representative from the la ke has suggested putting fabric on the storm drains, but that ’s just going to plug them up. Berry stated that we need to educate people to not blow their grass into the streets and try to keep the garbage out of the street. It’s a problem everywhere. There are 2 storm drains that go into the slough, and at least 4 that go into the creek below the dam. Schultz stated that she did some research to see how much it would cost to filtration. She called Erosion Control Specialists, they said generally most people use construction fabric. If you use roll fabric, it’s 4 feet x 300 inches. It would be $255 per square yard. They would be for the storm sewer inlets. There are 134 square yards in a roll. Berry asked what you’re supposed to do with the fabric? Schultz replied that she didn’t know. Berry thinks that every time it rains, she will have to go around and clean them out because they are going to fill up with junk and plug up with fabric on them. Berry suggests they table it for now until they can do some more research. Adjournment Motion by Waller, second Pierce to adjourn the meeting, motion carried. ___________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk