Village Board — Minutes

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – November 11 , 2024, 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 Ernie Klicko, Jason Pierce , Melvin Waller , Jerry Sonnenberg, Brad Oberbeck , Bob Berry and President Sindelar. Also present were Public Works Director Brent Frank, Attorney Flanagan, Clerk/Treasurer Lori Hustad, and Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Rebecca Reuter. APPROVAL OF OCTOBER 7th , 2024, BOARD MEETING MINUTES MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve the October 7, 2024, Village Board minutes, motion carried. TREASURER REPORT General Water Sewer July 1, 2024, Balance 67,615.40 342,545.21 38,297.72 July Receipts 37,938.93 75,188.14 31,750.04 July Disbursements 77,643.56 17,451.33 5,245.31 July Balance 7/31/2024 27,910.77 400,282.02 64,802.45 August 1, 2024, Balance 27,910.77 400,282.02 64,802.45 August Receipts 81,959.63 11,152.86 4,573.21 August Disbursements 128,464.86 15,428.99 0.00 August Balance 8/31/2024 (18,595.46) 396,005.89 69,375.66 September 1, 2024, Balance (18,594.46) 396,005.89 69,375.66 September Receipts 3,993.33 3,333.21 4,380.27 September Disbursements 48,612.59 6,389.00 9,909.38 September Balance 9/30/2024 (63,213.72) 392,950.10 63,846.55 LGIP #1 TIF $1,030,898.83 – LGIP #9 ARPA $ 0.38 – Capital Project Checking $33, 580.27 - Building Fund $ 65,000.00 – Money Market $1,64 6.91 – CDBG Working Fund $13,857.48 - LGIP #6 Park/Beach $ 43,551.43 – Tax Checking $116,746.85 – TIF Checking $95.00 -Street Equipment Fund $ 72,725.00 – Court Order Proceeds $3,808.03 – Water LGIP #3 Special Redemption Fund $210,695.33 - LGIP #4 Water Replacement Fund $3 75,981.10 – LGIP #8 Water Debt Reserve Fund $76,227.82 – Sewer LGIP#2 Special Redemption Fund $77,769.13 - LGIP#5 Sewer Replacement Fund $ 53,685.62 – LGIP#7 Sewer Debt Reserve Fund $61,976.68 MOTION by Klicko, second by Sonnenberg to approve treasurer report, motion carried. PAYING OF BILLS MOTION by Klicko, second by Sonnenberg to approve October vouchers 27353 - 27403 in the amount of $70,799.47, motion carried. CITIZEN INPUT No citizen input REPORT FROM COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE RICK PEASE Rick Pease stated that currently the County has a balanced budget, and tomorrow night is the public hearing. If anyone wants to come and make any statements about the current budget feel free to come, everyone will be given 3 minutes. They hired a veteran’s service officer named Terance Salat. He is now going through county training. PRESENTATION BY THE COUNTY ON PHASE II BUILDING PROJECT Cynthia Haggard the County Manager and Admin Iterative Coordinator brought a concept before the Board that’s been approved and they’re ok to move forward with utilizing their current building. In this process they’re hoping to have a permanent divide between the judicial side, and the annex. If you’re familiar with where the stairs are by the elevator, that will be blocked off on the judicial side. So, the stairs and the elevator will be on the annex side. There will be a permanent wall. She showed a slide show of what they are hoping to do on the outside of the building. They started with the parking lot. She stated that where the green space is now will be turned into a serpentine parking lot. They will utilize the green space area that is basically a wasted space. It will create 92 parking spaces. She asked where does the Village come in? All the storm water in the area is off to 4th Street. With the expanded parking area what they would like to do is put a couple of storm drains in the parking area to elevate any water issue with trying to put that much water under the VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – November 11 , 2024, PAGE 2 streets. Already there’s a storm drain off 3rd Street that drains underneath the building. So, the proposal is to run that out to Main Street, so all of the water flowing from the parking area would flow out there. Along with that the expanding parking area allows them much more parking that is needed with two judges and two court rooms going. When there is a jury trial going on there is no parking, and they are parking up and down all the surrounding streets. This will allow for much nicer and needed parking. They want to expand it by about a third of what it is now. There will be a new pedestrian crosswalk that the Village will be responsible for the stripping of it, and possibly a sidewalk apron. They are going to try to incur all the upfront cost, they just need the Villages permission and then upkeep afterwards. With the other side of the street on Adams Street the idea is to take the south parking lot that exists right now and incorporate handicap parking there. Right now, there really is no good handicap parking. What seems to be the biggest issue with the public right now is walking through this maze of abuilding that we have going on right now. It is a maze to get over to pay your taxes, to get a building permit, to do anything on that side of the building. In order to try and curb some of that we’ve already taken and put all the forward- facing offices on one single level of the building. They’re all on one floor. The intent is to open up the other entrance so that they can allow the public to come up to the Clerk, Treasurer, Register of Deeds, or Planning and Zoning, Land Conservation all on one floor. A one stop shop. You can walk in to get your business done and then walk back out. Screening and security at this point is up in the air, but the intent is to make this as accessible to the public citizens so that they do not have to traverse the incredible maze that our building is right now. We’ve had lots of issues with having to take people up in wheelchairs, and as the population ages it doesn’t get any easier. There will be a ramp that will come up from the south parking lot. It will be a nice handicap entrance that will go right into the building. Right now, the south parking lot is one big slope. It’s not handicap accessible, and it’s dangerous in the winter. That’s the intent of the project is to get people in and out really easy with a one stop shop. They are here to seek our support in this project and also our blessing on it. They are trying to make this better for the citizens of the county. The cost of the project will be covered by the money in the Dept Service Reserves. They were given an estimate of 2.3 million, but that was on the high end. They expect it to be much lower than that. They’ve already been given a green light by the committee, they are looking for the Public Works Department to be given notice, and then they can bring it before the whole County Board because this does impact all districts. Once that happens then they go ahead and get request for proposals. They are hoping to have it completed by 2025. Flanagan stated that this would need to go before the Public Works Committee so that they can review the location of the drain water, and the location of the crosswalk. MOTION by Berry , second by Waller to take this information back to Public Works to discuss it, motion carried. RESOLUTION FOR THE SALE OF VILLAGE PROPERTY Flanagan stated that we have a proposed resolution for the sale of the 1.85-acre parcel of property that is owned by the Village. As you’ll recall, for the last couple of months we have been negotiating the sale of the property. Last month we did authorize a counteroffer for two perspective purchasers. One of those counteroffers was approved. This resolution authorizes the sale and authorizes the Village President to authorize all necessary documents related to the sale. MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve resolution number 2024-11-11, motion carried. REPEAL OF ORDINANCE 78 Flanagan stated that we have been working through Ordinance 4 that regulates traffic upon the streets, alleys and highways in the Village of Friendship. What we did as we reviewed all the remaining pertinence ordinances last month was, we reviewed chapter 78, and we folded that into Ordinance 4. We are now requesting to repeal 78 because it is now reflected in Ordinance 4. MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to repeal ordinance number 2024-11-11, motion carried. REVIEW PRELIMINARY 2025 BUDGET Hustad stated that she has provided and discussed with the Finance Committee the budget for 2025. We’ve put together a balanced budget. As she prepared the budget she took into consideration where we are at as of September 30th. It includes employment raises. It also includes a slight increase to the stipend offered in lieu of health insurance. It also takes into consideration that we have within these numbers some pretty large VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – November 11 , 2024, PAGE 3 expenses that were paid out of our general fund that we will not be recurring. Hustad came up with a 2025 budget of $667,133.00. It is over and above our budget for last year but also adjusted for some of those bigger items that we won’t be incurring again. Public Works did have a few items that she incorporated to build up a little bit more than normal on the street equipment fund, and then the usual increase of the building fund. SET DATE AND TIME OF PUBLIC HEARING ON 2025 BUDGET MOTION by Berry, second by Sonnenberg to set Public Hearing for December 2nd at 6:00 with regular board meeting to fallow, motion carried. APPOINT CITIZEN MEMBER TO PLAN COMMISSION Sindelar stated that with the passing of one of our residents who was on the Plan Commission we have a vacancy. He is making a recommendation for Janet Boddy to fill the remainder of that term that would be from November to May 2025. MOTION by Klicko, second by Berry to appoint Janet Boddy to the Plan Commission, motion carried. UPDATE ON EAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Sindelar stated that after last month’s meeting Attorney Flanagan wrote up the letter, Sindelar received it on that fallowing Friday late in the afternoon past business hours. The following Monday he called the landowner and left a message that he needed to talk with them. Tuesday, he called back and left a message that he needed to talk with them about it, he did receive a text message back stating that they would be out of town until that following Sunday which would have already elapsed our deadline of that Friday. So, at that time, with all the time passed he had to come back to the board. Sonnenberg stated that she was not out of town, he saw her at her house on that Friday and Saturday. And he’s not the only one that saw her. He stated that we need to do something. He thought that if we didn’t get it signed that we were going to have Attorney Flanagan start the process of going to court. Flanagan stated that we are at the point now to authorize a petition to the circuit court to get approval to get on to the property. He stated that the Board probably would also want to authorize the Village President to not cause delays to contract with an attorney to do that. Sonnenberg stated that he drives by there every day, and he thinks it’s his responsibility as a Board member to let other Board members know what’s really going on. Not only for the Board members but also for the citizens. It seems we take a half a step forward and three steps back. He knows he hasn’t been on the board that long, but he’s been sitting through the meetings for three years. It’s time to either do it or just leave it alone. He is not in favor of leaving it alone, he’s in favor of getting it cleaned up. He thinks there are other areas in the Village also that need to be cleaned up. If we’re not going to enforce the ordinances, why do we have them? Just like at school when we were raised, there were rules. He was in HR as a manager for 30 years. He could lose cases on either workman’s comp or other things if we didn’t have our ducks in a row, and that means we treated everybody the same. This has been going on for 5-8 years and he’s not comfortable with the Village not doing anything. And if we can’t get the assistance that we need from our county, then where do we go? We need to be united as a Board so that whatever we decide to do, we do together. Someone in the audience raised their hand and wanted to say something, but was told it wasn’t citizen input. Sonnenberg thinks it would behoove us to put out some kind of notice that says you can only talk during citizen input, and if something comes up later in the agenda you can’t speak to it. Sindelar will double check Robert’s rule of order, and procedures and he will give an update on that. Sonnenberg stated that the problem with only letting people talk during citizen input is we have information that they are going to hear for the first time, so they don’t even know what to say at citizen input time. Flanagan wanted to clarify because he thinks it’s important the statement that he made in the past about court, and if it’s an avenue to help us was in response to utilizing citations. And he has said in the past that citations are probably not the path to remedy this. That isn’t to say that the supports aren’t the avenue to go. In fact, the petition to the circuit court would absolutely be the step to take, and he’s sure the circuit court would be very accommodating as with any municipality that would petition the court. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – November 11 , 2024, PAGE 4 Oberbeck stated in regard to our situation on Lake Street and our next move, at this point in his opinion the circuit court needs to be the next step. If they’re going to duck and dodge every time someone tries to make contact, and play phone tag, even if they’re being truthful, we’re still in the same spot. It’s his opinion that we move forward with what we can get done through the courts and get it done. Now on the flipside of that court costs are going to be an issue. Is there any recourse to say if we move forward with this, can we also request that the property owners be responsible depending on the verdict? Flanagan stated that the Village can certainly make that a part of the petition. You would probably instruct the attorney to do that. So, they would make the petition, and they would request coverage of the fees if the court deemed that appropriate. MOTION By Oberbeck, second by Sonnenberg to move forward to petition the court and authorize the Village Board President responsible for those communications, motion carried. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT Pierce stated under citizen input they discussed a property that is over on Grand Street that has a load of garbage along the street blowing around. Frank has sent letters out. The Committee wants to talk with GEC to find out about permits that have been taken out . They see new sheds going up around town and they don’t know if they’ve been permitted . With our ordinances with accessory buildings and garages. Klicko stated that he didn’t think you needed a permit for a 10x12 shed, or under 112 square feet. Reuter will start forwarding the email that the office gets every month to the Public Works Committee about permits issued. Pierce stated that they discussed the budget. They felt the budget numbers were acceptable except for the street equipment fund, and Tony related that to the office, and it was adjusted. They also talked about the maintenance items coming up to the plow. They talked about the streetlight placement. At the time of the meeting, they didn’t have any up-to-date information on the streetlights , and then they started putting them up on Thursday. Then they talked about NR 117 shoreline-wetland protection. And reviewed it a little bit. ADAMS CO.FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Klicko stated that they are still working on their internal reorganization with the new fire chief, it’s going pretty well from what they tell us. They’ve been approved as a training site for RedCross to give out public training for CPR. The training site preparation is ongoing. Erosion control is supposed to be there, but they haven’t seen them yet. Part of that is waiting on Bob White . There’s a big hold up on getting approval for a lot of things. The one tanker that they thought the frame was cracked on passed the DOT inspection, they just need to put brakes on it. They’re getting another phoneline. More grants were applied for and progressing. They are contracting out for firehose testing for $4,500. They will come and unload it to test it, and then load it back up. It takes a lot of time so it’s worth every penny to those guys who volunteer for fires. AMBULANCE COMMITTEE REPORT Sindelar stated that the meeting was on October 23 rd. Lifestar gave their updated report. Most transport went to Gunderson, and the other big part of the number was no transport. They did have a correction of numbers per capita . Every municipality does have a signed copy of the new contract moving forward. Sindelar did pass on all the praise that we did have from the Village to Lifestar. FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT REPORT Sonnenberg stated that there was a meeting on October 21 st he was unable to attend because he was still dealing with his medical issues. Berry stated that the next meeting will be in April. At the last Lake District meeting one of the things that they brought up was that they currently have a committee working on the lake management plan for the district that is due in 2025. Part of that whole prosses that the committee is working on is shoreline ordinances. That is why Berry brought it up to Public Works, and he is bringing it up here. He would like to see it on next month’s agenda so everyone can get a copy of NR 117, so they can kinda get an understanding of what’s going VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – November 11 , 2024, PAGE 5 on. A little brief on this is back in 2014 the state updated everything. Supposably the state was supposed to send villages and some cities a WI wetland map. And at that time, they were supposed to implement or do something with it. He doesn’t know if the Village ever got anything. He believes he was on the Board in 2014, and he doesn’t remember us receiving one. He would like all Board Members to get a copy of NR 117, and then at next month’s meeting we can have a discussion on it. Berry had Flanagan send him some of the shoreline ordinance that we have, and none of it was really what the state and the county’s plan is. Flanagan stated the Berry did call him and he talked to him briefly about it. He looked in our zoning ordinance hoping that is where our regulations would be. And it’s sparse as stated. Just a general note that it makes a lot of sense to have that come next month. The only catch being that you would probably be amending the zoning ordinance. We’ve done a map amendment in the recent past. That would then be referred to the Plan Commission . Flanagan stated that the Village could adopt a very similar ordinance to what he county has. Berry stated that when the state was supposed to send these maps, the Village would have been given 90 days to review the maps. Then hold Public Hearings on it. As far as he knows none of this was ever done back in 2014. OPERATOR LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve the Operator license for Brittnay Jepson, motion carried. CIGARETTE, TOBACCO, AND ELECTRONIC VAPING DEVICE RETAIL LICENSE CORRESPONDENCE MOTION by Klicko , second by Sonnenberg to approve the Cigarette, Tobacco, and Electronic Vaping Device Retail License for TabEASE, LLC, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE No correspondence. SET AGENDA ITEMS FOR AUGUST 5TH MEETING 2025 budget hearing, Approving the budget, Set date to hole Village caucus, Services agreement for office help, NR 117 Shoreline regulations, Appoint election inspectors ADJOURNMENT Being no further business to come before the board, MOTION by Berry, second by Oberbeck to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at 7:06 __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Deputy Clerk/Treasurer