Village Board — Minutes

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – September 9 , 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, Melvin Waller, Jason Pierce, 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. Jerry Sonnenberg and Brad Oberbeck were absent. APPROVAL OF August 5th , 2024, BOARD MEETING MINUTES MOTION by Berry, second by Klicko to approve the August 5, 2024, Village Board minutes, motion carried. TREASURER REPORT General Water Sewer June 1, 2024, Balance $28,716.99 $383,850.04 $74,072.87 June Receipts $113,790.22 $6,893.86 $6,923.67 June Disbursements $74,891.81 $48,198.69 $42,698.82 June Balance 6/30/2024 $67,615.40 $342,545.21 $38,297.72 LGIP #1 TIF $1,017,143.53 – LGIP #9 ARPA $0.38 – Capital Project Checking $33,580.27 - Building Fund $65,000.00 – Money Market $1,646.91 – CDBG Working Fund $13,857.48 - LGIP #6 Park/Beach $42,970.32 – Tax Checking $43,929.97 – TIF Checking $95.00 -Street Equipment Fund $72,725.00 – Court Order Proceeds $3,808.03 – Water LGIP #3 Special Redemption Fund $1 89,971.82 - LGIP #4 Water Replacement Fund $3 70,964.38 – LGIP #8 Water Debt Reserve Fund $7 5,210.72 – Sewer LGIP#2 Special Redemption Fund $ 62,169.41 - LGIP#5 Sewer Replacement Fu nd $52, 969.29 – LGIP#7 Sewer Debt Reserve Fund $61,149.72 MOTION by Berry, second by Waller to approve treasurer report, motion carried. PAYING OF BILLS MOTION by Klicko, second by Pierce to approve July vouchers 27281 - 27333 in the amount of $147,702.08, motion carried. CITIZEN INPUT Kim Meinhardt – Kim is running for county treasurer. She came to introduce herself. She has been a deputy treasurer for the past 2 years. Janni has taught her a lot of things about that office. She stated that it’s more than just collecting taxes. They put tax bills together. They are the depository for the county. They work very closely with the finance department in the county doing checks and balances. They balance to the bank every month. The other part that they do in their office is real property lister. That is her specialty. Real property listing is the reality transfer issues, this is what makes sure the tax bills go to the right people, for the right property. The reason she feels she is best qualified for the job is she’s been a deputy treasure for 2 years. Before that she was with the register of deeds for 3.5 years. Before that she was in banking for 10 years, and in the title insurance business running an office for 10 years. She feels the county treasurer job was made for her. She would appreciate it if we gave her our vote on November 5th. She’s running as an independent. Dee Vanderbilt – Dee is concerned about the increase in the water bill. She would like to know why it is increasing that much? Why does the Village buy their water from the City of Adams? Sindelar explained that the Village of Friendship doesn’t have its own wells. The City of Adams is the municipality that has the wells, they also have the controlling of the waste treatment plant. The Village of Friendship is their biggest customer. We do buy our water from the City of Adams at a wholesale price. The current increase in the price from the City of Adams is to bring water rates up to be trued up where they should be to cover cost, and that is from a study by an outside agency. With that being said if they raise their prices that will affect the price that we have to pay for the water. And eventually it will be passed through to the villagers. But before we can do that, we also have to go through PSC for them to do our evaluation. Dee also wanted to know why the lawn meters went up this year from $10.00 to $50.00? Sindelar stated that the lawn meters are a deduction meter. The committee went through and reevaluated the cost of taking the meter out to the residents. Every year those meters gone through, tested and rebuilt to make sure they’re functioning correctly. That’s all-extra labor involved. That’s where some of that increase comes into play. Dee asked if it would matter if someone living in the Village of Friendship went to a meeting in the City of Adams to talk about the price of water, or would that be a waste of time? Sindelar stated that she can go if she wants. Their rates are set by them, and our rates will go up down the road. REPORT FROM COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE RICK PEASE Pease stated that the county recently approved $127,000 to be given to the local fire districted. It will help with the training site. It’s budget season and they have started to look at their preliminary budget. On Tuesday the 17th they are having a work study. The work study is they have a firm go out and look at other counties and see what they pay compared to what we pay. Then they come back and inform us what those pays are. We haven’t had one in over 4 years. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – September 9 , 2024, PAGE 2 PLAN COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION ON ANNEXATION OF PARCEL 002-00536-0060 AND REZONING TO I-1. ADOPTION OF ANNEXATION ORDINANCE Attorney Flanagan passed around a copy of the petition that was signed. He explained that the Village did receive an annexation petition, it’s what’s referred to as annexation by unanimous consent, or unanimous approval. It was a petition that was received and signed by all the property owners of the land and that is ACEC. It is a request to annexes their property that is located in the Town of Adams into the Village of Friendship regarding the annexation. The notice requirements have been satisfied that had to be sent out. We set it for a plan commission meeting on August 19th. The reason we set that for a plan commission meeting was twofold 1- to get a recommendation from the plan commission. The 2nd if the annexation takes place there needs to some kind of zoning associated with that property. The plan commission also made a recommendation to the zoning. The request is for a zoning of I-1. The reason they are requesting I-1 is because the adjacent property is also zoned I-1, and the intention is to combine the parcel in question with the parcel west of that property. It needs to have common zoning to combine those two parcels. The last step from the Village perspective is the Village Board needs to consider the annexation ordinance. The annexation ordinance would need to be adopted to finalize the annexation. MOTION by Berry, second by Klicko to approve ordinance 2024-9-9, motion carried. Sindelar abstained. PRESENTATION FROM CONCERNED PROPERTY OWNER REGARDING THE EAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Nadine Ashworth took pictures of the East Lake Street property and handed out copies to the Board members. She stated that the pictures had been taken that morning (9-9-24). She pointed out the demo cars in the yard. She stated that the car he drives is always half on the road and half on the sidewalk. She wanted to know if there was an ordinance about him blocking the sidewalk. She stated that there was a lady walking down the sidewalk that had to take her baby stroller out into the road to walk around the car because it was blocking the whole sidewalk. Sindelar stated that we do have an ordinance that you can’t block the sidewalk. He has been there to talk with them about that a couple of times to get him to move it off the sidewalk. Flanagan stated that we should be reporting it to the sheriff’s department if we see it. Ashworth asked if the cleanup was done, or if there was going to be another cleanup? She is also concerned about the smell. It’s not just the looks, but also the smell coming from the property. She stated that this has been going on for years, and she really frustrated. Sindelar stated that he would answer her questions during his update on the East Lake Street property. REVIEW ORDINANCE PACKET FOR ORDINANCES 45 & 46 Flanagan stated the ordinance 45 deals with open burning in the Village. He stated that he was going to give an overview of this ordinance and pause as he gives that overview and talk about somethings that might be some considerations to build into our ordinance if we chose to do so. Then from there he will take direction to prepare an ordnance amendment for the next meeting. Ordinance 45 sets forth the requirement that a burning permit is required prier to open burning in the Village. It does set certain exceptions; those exceptions are for what he would consider minor burnings like small firepits, safety flares or a fire for cooking food. A burning permit sets forth certain restricts, days and times that are allowed to have burning. There is not burning allowed near streets. There is no open burning of tree limbs, brush or stumps. The other item that he often sees in these types of ordinances is a reference to burning of construction waste from construction sites. In the ordinance it dose set forth the items that can be durned with a permit such as grass, weeds, leaves, and small amounts of dry combustible rubbish. Those are things that are allowed to be burned with a burning permit in the Village. The procedure itself in our ordinance is one that goes through the Village Clerk-Treasurer office. It does state that ether the Village Clerk-Treasurer or other person authorized or designated to issue permits. What we are seeing as we are issuing these permits is potentially to just have in go through the Department of Natural Resources, as the DNR dose issue these permits. The regulation set forth that it needs to be done in a safe manner. It must not exceed four feet in any direction. It needs to be located a safe distance between the burning and any structure, wood or lumber pile, wooden fence, tree or bushes. And it needs to be constantly attended by someone 16 years or older. A few things that should be built into the ordinance 1- Doing a restriction for construction waste, we don’t want that to be burned in the Village. 2- looking at our permit procedure with the Clerk-Treasurer office, to have that done with the DNR. Hustad stated that the office staff have already helped several residents in getting their burning permit through the DNR. The DNR’s permit is good for 1 year where the Village’s permit is only good for 30 days. They have a phone number on the bottom of the permit that you can call when you want to burn and the DNR will tell you if you can burn that day or not. They will look at the wind in your area, how dry it is and determine if it’s a safe day to burn. Berry stated that he would like to recommend Flanagan make the needed changes, and updates to the open burning ordinance. Flanagan will prepare an ordinance amendment. He will bring it to the next meeting where it can be reviewed all together, and it can be considered at the next meeting. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – September 9 , 2024, PAGE 3 Flanagan stated the ordinance 46 deals with ice fishing shanties on Friendship Lake. It’s regulating placement on Village property next to and adjacent to the Friendship Lake. That is Friendship beach, parking lot and lake access ramps. What the ordinance is saying is that there’s no placement between March 5 and December 15 of each year. The between December 15 and March 5 the placement can be no longer than a week. And that if improperly placed on the property the person is responsible for the removal and storage. The Village would notify the owner, and they would have 10 days after receiving the notice to get it moved if they don’t then we can move it and dispose of the property. The Village Board decided to leave the ordinance as is. UPDATE ON EAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Sindelar stated that Fenner’s has been contracted to come in the week of September 30th – October 4th. During that week when he’s available he can show up. The property owner was notified. They are aware that they are in breach of the agreement. This time it is a total cleanup. Berry asked if we ever found out how many of the vehicles on that property are registered? And how much is Fenner’s going to cleanup? Sindelar stated that not yet unless you can see the license plate. The first time Fenner’s came in the property owners had an area that they were going to finish processing themselves. They have until September 30th to do that or it’s going to get cleaned up. Talking with the owner they know what needs to be done, so hopefully we’ll see some results if not it will get cleaned up. This time it is on an hourly rate. All the men, labor equipment and processing are all on an hourly rate. The Village will have to pay for it up front, and it will be put as a special charge on their taxes. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT Pierce stated that the Committee started their meeting by going on a drive around the Village looking at nuisance and tall grass properties. They didn’t have any new ones to add. The Committee still have a few on the watch list. An update on the HWY 13 road project, they are blacktopping. They discussed Family Affair and the cleanup. The Committee looked around the property. They’ve been cleaning it up. But they are wondering about the back side, if there needs to be a silk fence. Frank is going to contacted General Engineering to find out if that’s required. Next the Committee discussed mowing fees and recurring properties, and possibly raising their fees. After reviewing our current fees that it was sufficient for what we’re doing. They would recommend no changes on the fee schedule for recurring. The Committee would like to look into changing the grass length from 12 inches to 6 inches. Flanagan will bring that ordinance with him to the next meeting so that we can discuss that change. Pierce stated that the Committee also looked at vacant and unimproved lots and debated whether those rules should apply to those lots, and the Committee decided they should not. ADAMS CO.FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Klicko stated that they are still working on the training center. And now they’re working on the erosion control that must be approved. They got the ARPA funds from the county that will go towards that along with the money from Mid-State. The biannual fire inspections were brought up, and they are working on an ordinance for that. They’ve started to work on the budget for next year. There’s been some discussion of having a special charge, there’s some new ideas going around there and that was one of them. They bought a new breathing air compressor for $33,000. They go through a lot of air bottles. Then they must take them to New Chester to get them filled. Now they won’t need to do that. They are working on reorganizing the auxiliary to be tax deductible. They are buying some more turnout gear out of the 2% insurance money that was being stockpiled under the previous administration. They didn’t really understand what all it could be spent on. They also bought 3 4-gas meters to test for carbon monoxide and three other gases. The next meeting will be on Thursday September 12th at 6:00. Sindelar also added that they just celebrated the 100 -year anniversary of the Fire Departments. He did drive the 1937 GMC in the firetruck parade. It started down at the Adams Fire department all the way through town and ended at the fairgrounds. They had multiple stations from the surrounding areas. AMBULANCE COMMITTEE REPORT Sindelar stated that they did meet and sigh the new extended contract for 5 years. The first 3 years are locked in with the ability on years 4 and 5 to go back and negotiate if needs be. All the members of the group signed. We should be getting a copy of that soon. FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT REPORT Berry stated that lake district did meet over Labor Day weekend for the annual budget hearing. The budget was passed unanimously. It was also election time. Berry is no longer on the Lake District board. Berry wanted to bring to the boards attention that there is a member on the lake that is part of a committee to look at the lake management and she is trying to force residents that have property on the lake to do shoreline restoration and fix up their shoreline. The Lake District has no power to force people to do it. He feels she is going to be petitioning the Village of Friendship, Town of Adams VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – September 9 , 2024, PAGE 4 and the Town of Preston to see if they can do anything with it. He just wanted to bring it to our attention incase down the road we need to look into our ordinance about it. OPERATOR LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve the Operator license for Tasha Higgins, and Cynthia Katthoefer, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE Reuter read a letter that was received by Ray and Nancy Churchill regarding leaf pickup SET AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE OCTOBER 7TH MEETING Trick or Treat hours Ordinance updates 4 & 45 Ordinance update to the lawn ordinance THE VILLAGE BOARD MAY GO INTO CLOSED SESSION PURSUANT TO WIS. STAT. SESTION 19.85 (1)(e) DELIBERATING OR NEGOTIATING THE PURCHASING OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES, THE INVESTING OF PUBLIC FUNDS, OR CONDUCTING OTHER SPECIFIED PUBLIC BUSINESS, WHENEVER COMPETITIVE OR BARGAINING REASONS REQUIRE A CLOSED SESSION- REVIEW ANY OFFERS RECEIVED FOR VILLAGE-OWNED PARCEL 126-00023-0000 MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to enter into closed session, motion carried. Roll call: Ernie Klicko, Melvin Waller, Jason Pierce, Bob Berry and President Tony Sindelar – 7:05pm Back in session at 7:23 no action was taken on the topic VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – September 9 , 2024, PAGE 5 ADJOURNMENT Being no further business to come before the board, MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at 7:25 __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Deputy Clerk/Treasurer