Village Board — Minutes

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 3 , 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, 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. Melvin Waller was not in attendance. APPROVAL OF MAY 6TH, 2024, BOARD MEETING MINUTES MOTION by Klicko, second by Pierce to approve the May 6th, 2024, Village Board minutes, motion carried. TREASURER REPORT General Fund Checking January 2024 Starting Balance $74,065.79. Receipts of $7,537.04. Disbursements of $99,022.66. Ending Bank Balance of $(17,419.83). Special Accts Total $1,726,766.70 General Fund Checking February 2024 Starting Balance $(17,419.83). Receipts of $175,827.27. Disbursements of $43,331.62. Ending Bank Balance of $115,075.82. Special Accts Total $1,374,603.92 General Fund Checking March 2024 Starting Balance $115,075.82. Receipts of $7,901.37. Disbursements of $41,709.74. Ending Bank Balance of $81,267.45. Special Accts Total $1,362,677.19 MOTION by Berry, second by Sonnenberg to approve treasurer report, motion carried. PAYING OF BILLS MOTION by Klicko, second by Sonnenberg to approve May vouchers 27154-27202 in the amount of $181,670.48, motion carried. CITIZEN INPUT There was no citizen input. REPORT FROM COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE RICK PEASE The county representative was not in attendance. DISCUSSION ON VILAGE OWNED PARCEL 126-00023-0000 Teri Camp reminded the Board what her thoughts were from last month that it’s a unique property, it’s zoned conservancy, she is suggesting a price of $37,900. Easton Dreher from Vertical Illusions raised his hand from the audience to add that he was the person to bring this property to the attention of the Village Board about a year ago. He has property that butts up to this parcel. He is interested in buying it and keeping it in a conservancy, and not building on it. Right now there are trespassers that go on the property and leave all their trash behind and vandalize the rock with spray paint. He would like to see that stop and keep it beautiful. Sonnenberg asked if the Village would need to have the parcel surveyed? Attorney Flanagan stated that the Village would probably do it in a similar fashion to past property sales. It would be as is subject to the buyer being responsible for certain costs including the survey. Berry stated that his opinion that if we can sell a piece of Village owned property and put it back on the tax roll that’s what he thinks we should do. MOTION by Klicko, second by Berry to list the property at $37,900 as the realtor recommends, motion carried. MOTION by Berry, second by Sonnenberg to approve President Sindelar as the signee to sign the listing agreement, motion carried. PRESENTATION FROM A CONCERNED PROPERTY OWNER REGARDING THE EAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Nadine Ashworth lives at 202 East Lake Street. She handed out papers to everyone in attendance of pictures that she had taken to show how bad the house across the Street from her property is at 207 East Lake Street. The pictures show a car and truck with all 4 tires flat on them, a trailer with no tires under it full of junk, the back of the truck is full of junk, and a yard full of garbage all over it. Ashworth has been to the Village Board before and has commented during the citizen input about this property. She stated that the car hasn’t moved in 2 1/5 years. The inside of it is full of junk. Ashworth would like to see all the vehicles and garbage removed. Ashworth stated that the Village paid to have a clean up done, but it’s still not clean. Ashworth stated that she’s not doing this just for herself, but VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 3 , 2024, PAGE 2 for other residents that have complained to her about it and have asked her to say something. Ashworth also stated that there is a smell that comes from the property, and when the wind blows it smells awful. Ashworth can’t sit out and enjoy her front yard because the smell is so bad. Ashworth mows the yard next door to 207 East Lake Street and the smell coming from their backyard isn’t good, it’s very smelly. Oberbeck asked if the vehicles were registered? Because if they’re not then they’re in violation of the Village ordinance. Attorney Flanagan stated that a conversation was had with the property owners regarding the registration of the vehicles and his understanding was the property owner was going to get that taken care of. He doesn’t believe a time limit was discussed. Ashworth was under the understanding that the Village wasn’t done cleaning up and that this was part of the cleanup. That the vehicles would be removed. Sonnenberg stated he thought the cleanup had to be done by a certain time. The Village can’t keep letting these deadlines slide. Sonnenberg thought the agreement stated that there was to be nothing added to the property. But the property owner’s son has added at least 3 other vehicles in the backyard and side yard. Sonnenberg asked Ashworth what it is she would like to see happen? Ashworth stated that she would like it all to be cleaned up. She wants to know if the prosses is done? Because every meeting that she has been at its talked about. She thinks the Village needs to get someone back there to finish the job. Sonnenberg would like to see the property cleaned up and looking like a decent yard. He would like to have all the junk that is in the yard cleaned up. Give it a nice curb appeal. Ashworth said it’s not just the curb appeal at this point, it’s also getting rid of whatever is causing the horrible smell coming from the backyard. She thinks there has to be a health hazard there. She stated that this has been going on for 6 years. She wants to know when it’s finally going to get cleaned up. Berry stated the 1st thing we need to do is find out if the vehicles are registered or not. If they are registered, then there’s nothing we can do about it. Oberbeck stated that the pictures speak for themselves about the current situation. They are in violation of the abatement that was set forth. The next step is to hear the update. Where that violation for the abatement goes as far as consequence we won’t know until we hear what has to be said in the update. Ashworth thanked the Village Board for listening. UPDATE ON EAST LAKE STREET PROPERTY Sindelar gave an update on the East Lake Street property. He stated that with the concerns of the violation not being met he will move forward with contacting the property owner and any other representative in the household to set up a meeting. They will go over the list of materials that they were supposed to take care of the 1st time. Also to discuss the rest of the vehicles, registration, the trailer. Also, with that, getting some information on the cost of having the outside service come back to do the rest of the cleanup. Berry stated that it’s a very frustrating situation and he feels for Nadine. What action can we take, what can we legally do? What’s the stench coming from? The property isn’t getting any better. It’s getting worse. Theres’s cars in the backyard that weren’t there 3 months ago. Sonnenberg stated that we need to take some kind of action so that the landowner knows we’re serious. Oberbeck stated that just looking at the pictures you can see the inside of the house, at what point is condemnation even discussed. Sindelar stated that the agreement was for the outside property. It had nothing to do with the inside of the property. That’s a separate issue. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 3 , 2024, PAGE 3 Oberbeck asked if the health department is an avenue? If anyone has answers, that would be fantastic. Flanagan stated that maybe health and human services are contacted, the county, and the sheriff department for the registrations. We can get with the service to get an estimate of what it will cost to finish the cleanup. Flanagan would do all of that before meeting with the property owner. Then he would meet with the property owner. We have an agreement that allows us to go on and abate the nuisance, but he thinks we need to understand what we’re going to abate. Flanagan thinks all these concerns are valid, he doesn’t mean to dismiss anyone’s valid concerns. As he understood it there were supposed to be meetings with the property owner all along. There are avenues we can explore. There are ways we can enforce our agreement. He thinks we need to have our ducks in a row before meeting with the property owner. That would be his recommendation. Sonnenberg stated that along with that we need to have some action items that are done by a certain date, not only for them but for us. We need to put time frames on ourselves and then follow through with those time frames. He’s not hearing that we’ve done that in the past. We can’t change the past, but we can go forward, and we try to resolve this as quickly as we can. Berry wanted to know if Frank could write down the license plate information and ask the sheriff department if the vehicles are registered? Frank said he would take care of that. NAMING A ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS MEMBER Sindelar named Pat Kierstyn to fill the last vacancy for the Zoning Board of Appeals. MOTION by Klicko, second by Berry to approve Pat Kierstyn to Zoning Board of Appeals, motion carried. DISCUSSION & POSSIBLE ACTION ON ECMAR REPORT Flanagan stated that this is a report that is put together every year for the DNR. We get a letter grade. The Village received an A grade. MOTION by Berry, second by Oberbeck to approve the ECMAR report, motion carried. DISCUSSION & POSSIBLE ACTION ON REQUEST FOR A DONATION FOR FIREWORKS/PERMIT MADE BY NADINE ASWORTH Ashworth stated that this is the 6th year that she’s doing the fireworks. She is asking for a donation like in years past. Oberbeck asked if with the Hwy 13 road construction Ashworth could see a problem with anything she needs to do for set up? Or if anyone thought there would be a problem with congestion or parking, or with pedestrians using the sidewalks? Berry didn’t think it would be an issue because the construction ends at Moundview Dr. and the beach is north of that. Ashworth doesn’t think it will be a problem. She stated that most people park at the breach, or along West Lake Street, and ACEC. Sindelar stated that once Ashworth received the manifest of what fireworks she was receiving then he would sign the permit. MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to donate $1,000 to Ashworth for the fireworks, motion carried. PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE REPORT Chairman Pierce stated the first item the committee discussed was the East Lake Street property agreement. They looked it over and their recommendation was to pursue that agreement. The next item was nuisance properties. Frank sent out letters to 4 other propert ies previously, and they have all shown improvement and cleaned up. The Hwy 13 road project and light replacements are running on schedule to end in October for the road project, and lights should be here sooner than expected. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 3 , 2024, PAGE 4 The Committee went over the Hydro Corp agreement. The Committee tabled that discussion until they could get clarification from Flanagan on Hydro Corp’s response. Flanagan stated that what Hydr Corp is saying is that there will be an additional expense that would come with continuing here. The difficult part there being the continuation pieces are all the more difficult pieces. If everyone could just end at the easy ones, we would probably get a lot more companies that were interested in doing it. Flanagan thinks that we are better off keeping them involved with this and making them go forward with it. It sounds like there’s going to be an additional expense. Frank stated that the Village still has 37 meters that still need to be installed. Hydro Corp has a flat daily rate of $1,430 a day. That would consist of $110 per installation x 13 timeslots per day. Frank stated that it would come down to the Village getting the residents to make appointments. Both Frank and Hydro Corp tagged doors when they were here before trying to get residents to make appointments. Pierce stated that if we have 37 left to do Hydro Corp would need to come back for at least four more days if they had a full schedule. The PSC said that we could shut the water off until they comply and let us do the installation. The Committee will discuss it at their next meeting. The beach and park update –There were a few little vandalism things that needed to be fixed. The water is now turned on. A showerhead needed to be replaced in the men’s room. ADAMS CO.FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Trustee Klicko stated that there was no action on any new business. Fire Chief Daved Orange resigned on May 9th. A special meeting was held on May 14th to appoint Roger Rudson as the new Chief. The next meeting is Thursday June 13th. AMBULANCE COMMITTEE REPORT President Sindelar stated he had nothing new to report. The next meeting is the end of July. FRIENDSHIP LAKE DISTRICT REPORT Trustee Sonnenberg stated the next meeting will be on June 13th at the Town of Adams Hall. CONSIDERATION & ACTION ON THE APPROVAL O N LIQUOR LICENSES, OPERATOR LICENSES, TEMPORARY CLASS”B” RETAILERS ’ LICENSE, SOAD LICENSES AND CIGARETTE, TOBACCO, AND ELECTRONIC VAPING DEVICE RETAIL LICENSE LIQUOR LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Sonnenberg to approve Combination Class B Retailers ’ License for Who Cares? Ba r and Gri ll, Corner Bar, Family Affair Restaurant LLC, and American Legion Res Cloud Post 250, motion carried. OPERATOR LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Klicko to approve the Operator license for Florence Johnson, and Wendy Prochaska, motion carried. TEMPORYARY CLASS “B” RETAILERS LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve Temporary Class “B” Retailer’s licenses for August 21-25 to Castle Rock Lions Club, and St. Joseph Council 6718 Knights of Columbus, motion carried. SOAD LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve Soda Water Beverage License for Castle Rock Lions Club, Solsikke Soap & Candle, Who Cares? Bar and Grill, Corner Bar , American Legion Red Cloud Post 250, and Family Affair Restaurant LLC, motion carried CIGARETTE, TOBACCO, AND ELECTRONIC VAPING DEVICE RETAIL LICENSE MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to approve Cigarette, Tobacco, and Electronic Vaping Device Retail License for WRLK, LLC, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE President Sindelar shared a copy of the “Rural Partners Network: Progress Through Action Workshop” letter he received. Sindelar asked if any of the trustees were inter ested in attending the workshop on Thursday, June 13 , 2024, in Ro thchild. Registration is still available. Sindelar said if anyone is interested in going to let him know because there are other people from the community that are going and putting together a carpool. VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – June 3 , 2024, PAGE 5 SET AGENDA ITEMS FOR JULY 1st MEETING Village Board Picture Plan Commission recommendation on rezoning Lake Street Update Teri Camp at the end of the meeting as a closed session if she has anything ADJOURNMENT Being no further business to come before the board, MOTION by Berry, second by Pierce to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at 7:10 __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Deputy Clerk/Treasurer