Village Board — Minutes

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – January 6th, 2025, PAGE 1 The Friendship Village Board meeting was called to order followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by all present. President Tony Sindelar called the meeting to order and roll call was taken. Present were Trustees Brad Oberbeck, Ernie Klicko, Jerry Sonnenberg , Melvin Waller, Bob Berry, and President Sindelar. Also present were Public Works Director Brent Frank, Attorney Flanagan, and Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Rebecca Reuter. Jason Pierce was absent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION by Berry, second by Oberbeck to approve the December 2nd, 2024, Village Board minutes, motion carried. TREASURER REPORT IF AVAILABLE No report available PAYING OF BILLS MOTION by Klicko, second by Sonnenberg to approve December vouchers 27438-27486 & EFT120124 in the amount of $154,710.26, motion carried. CITIZEN INPUT No citizen input ROPORT FROM COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE RICK PEASE Pease stated that they had a meeting a few weeks ago on the outline of the upgrade to the courthouse. There was a lively discussion on the pros and cons to some of it. They are going to look at it and if there’s any changes to the video they showed us, they will come back and let us know. Today was swearing in day for the County Clerk, County Treasurer, and District Attorney. REVIEW A CSM SUBMISSION FROM ACEC ON COMBINING PARCEL #126- 00044-0000 & 002-00536-0040 Flanagan stated that for this item the reason the two-parcel numbers start with different numbers is because this is the parcel that we went through the annexation on to bring 002-00536-0040 into the Village of Friendship. As we have annexed that parcel, they are now looking to combine that all into the same parcel zoned I-1. MOTION by Berry, second by Klicko to combine parcel numbers 126-00044-0000 & 002-00536-0040 into one parcel zoned I-1, motion carried. Sindelar abstains. DISCUSS A KAYAK RENTAL PROGRAM AT FRIENDSHIP LAKE BEACH WITH MEGAN STECKELBERG Steckelberg gave each member some information on RENT.FUN. They are a company that does kayak rentals. RENT.FUN takes care of everything. They have their own insurance. The Chamber was thinking of putting this at Friendship Lake in between the boat launch and the beach in the grassy area that is there. All it needs is a level ground. RENT.FUN takes care of it from there. They take care of any maintenance, and anything to do with the kayaks. All the Chamber is looking for from the Village is that spot to be leveled if we approve. The Chamber has already talked to the Friendship Lake District, and they are excited about it, and want to move forward. Visit Rome already has 2 or 3 locations of this right now. RENT.FUN already have a maintenance guy in the area. They pay the maintenance person. The set-up fee works with a QR code that you scan with your phone, you pay through your phone. You take all your equipment out, it comes with a kayak, vest, padel. We get to decide how much we want to charge. The person wanting to rent the kayak pays for it, and then when they bring it back, they take a picture of all of it put back together, and send it in. If there’s anything missing, then that person gets charged and the maintenance person would have to come out and take care of it. Flanagan stated that he was familiar with this from Rome. He asked if Steckelberg was looking for a concrete pad, or just leveling the ground? Steckelberg thinks a concrete pad would be great, but they can put it on any flat surface. Berry asked how many kayaks would there be? Steckelberg stated that there are a lot of different packages. There are 4, 8 or 12. And the Chamber decided to go with 8. They can split them, if they want, VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – January 6th, 2025, PAGE 2 they could put 4 at our location, and 4 at a different location. She thinks they will be putting all 8 at the beach. Pease’s asked if the Village or the Friendship Lake Association needs to put in a kayak dock where people would get in? Steckelberg stated that they wouldn’t have to. That is something the Chamber was looking into possibly getting, and they would cover the cost for. But that’s not part of this agreement today. Oberbeck asked, so 100% liability would be on them, even for vandalism? Unfortunately, it needs to be brought up. Steckelberg stated that yep it would be all on them. They cover all of it. Sindelar recommends that this goes before the Public Works Committee to let them go over it. DISCUSS ROOM TAX WITH MEGAN STECKELBERG Steckelberg stated she was going to start putting together quarterly updates for the public, not just the business members. Steckelberg also handed out a pamphlet on the Room Tax Seminar with Bill Elliot on Thursday at 6PM at the Town of Adams Hall. He’s the expert on room tax and can answer any questions we might have on the subject. It’s open to the public so everyone is welcome to come. DISCUSS CHAPTER 396 FROM THE COUNTY REGARDING NR 117 Berry asked if anyone had a chance to go through and look at the 50-page document, stating that he really hadn’t had a chance to read through all of it. MOTION by Berry, second by Sonnenberg to table it until we’ve had a chance to sit and look through it and review it, where we can come to the table to discuss it better, motion carried. REVIEW THE VIOLATION ON RAYMOND STREET Flanagan stated that he had packets for the Board members to look over. This relates to a fence that has been placed on a property on Raymond and 2nd Street. The fence is placed too close to the road. It’s within the setback area; it’s in violation of our ordinance. Just a general recap of steps that have happened. The individual was first notified of the violation by GEC. Shortly thereafter they attended a Public Works meeting in late February 2024, the individual met with the Public Works Committee, the committee made the recommendation that the line markers be verified and that the fence be moved outside the setback area so that it’s in compliance with out ordinance. Some time was given to accomplish that, ultimately it was not moved. Then in May the Public Works Director did provide a notice of continued violations, gave a period of time after which it would go to potential enforcement. Then you’ll see a letter from Flanagan in July after he was informed that it was not addressed. As a final notice of correct note that if the individual does not move it then it would be brought to the Village Board meeting for potential prosecution. The recommendation then came out of Public Works was to proceed with enforcement as we’ve done in the past. Citations for any properties do flow through the Village Board and that’s how we would get the authorization for this is the Village Board. Ultimately the ordinance says that fences cannot project into the front setback area greater than that of the side yard, side yard is 15 feet in that district. The fence measurements are 3 feet from the edge of 2nd and 5 feet from the edge of Raymond. Both of those are too close to the road. We would be looking for your authorization to proceed with a citation. Then it would go through Circuit Court. MOTION by Sonnenberg, second by Oberbeck to authorize and proceed with a citation, motion carried. ORDINANCE RELATING TO FIRE INSPECTIONS Flanagan stated that this is word for word verbatim what was forwarded onto us, all he did was put it into our ordinance format. As you know we’ve been trying to have consistent looking ordinances so it’s easy to navigate through. This is what was sent over from the Adams County Fire District. He has seen the other municipality members adopting the exact same ordinance. They would like to see all the municipalities have the some ordinance. MOTION by Klicko, second by Berry to adopt this ordinance, motion carried. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – January 6th, 2025, PAGE 3 REVIEW ATTORNEY PROPOSALS Sindelar stated that he has two different packets for the Board members to look over. He contacted four law firms and two of them sent us paperwork over, and the other two he contacted reached back and the one law firm doesn’t have the manpower to take us on at this time, and the second one we don’t fit their schedule with Monday night meetings. Both firms have said they are more than happy to come and do a face-to-face explanation, we just have to schedule it with them. Sindelar will reach out to both firms and see when he can set up a time for them to meet with the Board. UPDATE ONEAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Sindelar stated that there was nothing new to update. He’s waiting for the new council. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT There was no Public Works meeting in December FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Klicko stated that the air truck finally has ad apters to fit all the different breathing apparatuses in the county . They run that frequently, so it ’s a good thing to have. They’re going to get a full estimate on repairs to the ladder truck. AMBULANCE COMMITTEE REPORT Nothing to report. Next meeting will be on January 24th FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT REPORT Nothing new to report. DISCUSSION & ACTION ON LIQUOR LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Klicko to approve License for LAST CALL PUB & GRUB, LLC, motion carried. DISCUSSION & ACTION ON SODA WATER BEVERAGE LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Sonnenberg to approve water soda beverage license for LAST CALL PUB & GRUB, LLC, and Bloom Fusion, LLC, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE No correspondence SET AGENDA ITEMS FOR FEBRUARTY 3rd MEETING Discuss chapter 396 from the county regarding NR 117 Being no further business to come before the board, MOTION by Berry, second by Oberbeck to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at 6:44 __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Deputy Clerk/Treasurer