2023 May-Sept Meeting Minutes (PDF)

2023 Meeting Minutes Meeting Minutes September 19, 2023 Meeting called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call. All board members present. Approval of the minutes from August meeting. Motion was made Supervisor Larison second by Supervisor Woehler, all in favor motion carried. Approval of agenda was made by Supervisor Woehler, seconded by Supervisor Larison, all in favor motion carried. Road report. Chairman McLain gave thanks to Jeff Johnson for help in brushing the roads. Brushing should all be done now. The salt shed door has been fixed. We have the one-ton truck back. The dump truck is back. The grader needs repair, it isn’t starting. We are hoping to get more grading done this year. The loader needs a little repair. The tailgate on the blue truck needs attention. It doesn’t want to close. Chairman McLain talked to Pat Smith about UTV trails. We are told the only roads they need to keep open for UTV’s are Morgan Lake Road, Lunds Road, and Ben Nichols Road. Morgan Lake Road is trial based. Right now, it is being torn up from UTV’s. The culvert on Walnut Road has been fixed. Chief Sternhagen reported no fires in the town last month. Fence did help with a fire on Thompson Road which ended in a complete loss. There were people lost by the Oxbow that were found by the time the Fence people arrived. One of the fire trucks had the oil change, the other is still in need. Town workers are asked to be sure the trailer is clear to get out in an emergency. They will have their meeting here on September 20th. They will hold the raffle picnic at the Veterans Pavilion on the 23rd from 12pm to 5pm. Gloria Dzekute was moved up on the agenda. She asked about the faded road signs. We are in the process of replacing a lot of them but need new brackets. Board concerns. Joe Witinski reported that there will be a meeting in Florence on Oct. 5th for funding of roads. Chairman McLain asked one of the Supervisors to attend because he could not. Chairman McLain has asked Coleman Engineering to look at Klahn’s Pond. The truck will be taken to Grahn’s Body Shop for repair. The outside water spicket and the men’s bathroom needed Affordable plumbing to help with. The benches at the ballpark are rotting. Hopefully we can get those replaced next year. The roof on the pavilion at the ballpark is done. Supervisor Woehler suggested possibly holding a fundraiser to help with the costs of repair there. New paperwork was presented to the town from a member of the cemetery committee to consider adopting. The clerk gave the board a new proposal from R&R Assessing for a new 3-year term. Guardian Pest control presented a new proposal to add the town garage and Rescue building to the current plan. These will be tabled until the next meeting. Paperwork was provided to inform the board and Town of Fence of the penalties and interest that we had to pay because of absent and late reports filed to the state from year 2021 and 2022. (For a copy of this report, contact the Town Office). The CD that will mature January 6, 2024, can be changed to a better rate. We would lose approximately $94.00 if we changed it now. The interest rate is currently .75% and could increase to $4.9%. Supervisor Woehler motioned to change it. 2nd by Supervisor Larison. Motion carried. Motion to pay bills made by Supervisor Larison 2nd by Supervisor Woehler, all in favor motion carried. Supervisor Larison made a motion to adjourn the meeting 2nd by Supervisor Woehler, all in favor motion carried. Meeting adjourned. Next meeting will be October 17th at 6:00 pm Julie Johnson, Fence Town Clerk/Treasurer _________ Meeting Minutes August 15, 2023 Meeting called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call. All board members present. Approval of the minutes from July meeting. Motion was made Supervisor Woehler second by Supervisor Larison, all in favor motion carried. Approval of agenda was made by Supervisor Larison, seconded by Supervisor Woehler, all in favor motion carried. Fire dept. report. None. Chief Sternhagen not present Road report. Tom Harrison has been doing some grading gravel roads. Brushing has been worked on. Twin River Road will be difficult. East side of Fence has been done, now working on the west side. Ther is grass coming through some of the cracks in the roads. We may look at crack sealing again. Hopefully the 1-ton truck will be done on the 18th. The dump truck should be done by Monday the 21st. It was all torn apart because it had another leak. The culvert by Popple River needs to be patched. The road sign replacement has been started. The signs we got in are smaller, so they need new mounts. Glen Meyer approached Chairman McLain about the road overseer job. He will need to submit a letter of interest for the position. He would not be asking for full-time hours. We may need to post the position if we don’t hear from him. Tom Harrison received the records for the cemetery from Gloria Dzekute. There hasn’t been an update since ’94. There are no maps for plotting. The back 2 rows are not marked so it is uncertain if there are burials there. The plaque needs an update also. He will look into a possible grant to help with replotting. Peter Hamill stated he was interested in joining the cemetery committee to work on policies. Ground penetrating radar could be used to locate older and unmarked burials. There are no other board concerns at this time. The clerk reported that Mike Johnson with Guardian Pest Control would like to present the town with a proposal to include all town buildings. He currently only services the town hall and fire hall. He is asking to include inside both town garage buildings and ambulance buildings. He will have a proposal for next month’s meeting. Lori Sleeter will look at our QuickBooks. She said if she could give advice, she wouldn’t charge the town. If she needs to take the computer and it is very time-consuming, then she would have to charge us. Her opinion is that if QuickBooks was cleaned up, we would probably be able to get the audit done. The insurance adjuster is waiting for an estimate for the salt shed. Then he will look at the deductible and send a check for building and truck. BOR is posted to Sept. 7th from 9-11 A.M. the open book will be Aug 24th from 9-11 A.M. Motion to pay bill made by Supervisor Larison 2nd by Supervisor Woehler, all in favor motion carried. Supervisor Larison made a motion to adjourn the meeting 2nd by Supervisor Woehler, all in favor motion carried. Next meeting will be September 19th at 6:00 pm Julie Johnson, Fence Town Clerk/Treasurer _________ Meeting Minutes July 18 2023 Meeting called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call. Chairman McLain and Supervisor Woehler present. Supervisor Larison not present due to illness. Approval of the minutes from June meeting. Motion was made Supervisor Woehler second by Chairman McLain, all in favor motion carried. Approval of agenda was made by Supervisor Woehler seconded by Chairman McLain, all in favor motion carried. Hall and Pavilion rentals will be compared to other towns, Clerk Johnson will get information from Keyes Lake, Town of Florence and Armstrong to see what they charge. Fence Post application to renew a combination “Class B” liquor/beer license and cigarette license was approved at a special meeting. An employee review will take place at another time. Employees requested to attend the meeting did not attend. Equipment status was questioned. Chairman McLain reported that the tandem has a bad water pump, it is at Kurtz Diesel waiting on repair with cost of approx., $3500.00. The one- ton truck needs a torque converter. It has been down for about a month. If not repaired soon it will have to be taken elsewhere. Now it is at Romans. The 5-yard truck had a cracked cap on the tire. Chairman McLain picked one up took it apart and repaired it. The fuel pump was leaking on the loader. A new pump was picked up and will be repaired by Chairman McLain. The front tire is bad also. Pomp’s came to replace it today. The lawn mower was picked up from being repaired at Laona Machine and is now completely fixed. Brent Dala Grana has 2 more covenant parcels that he is asking the town to take care of. They are to be purchased by private parties. He will get the paperwork together if the town gives permission to sell. Permission to sell was motioned by Supervisor Woehler 2nd by Chairman McLain. Motion carried. Fire dept. report from Chief Sternhagen is that no fires were reported. There was a bad UTV vs. truck accident west of Fence. Speculation that speed was involved. Laona Rescue responded to the accident. They have 2 new trained members. 1 from Lake Patton and the other ¼ mile from fire hall. They received a generous donation from the VFW. Both trucks will need an oil change by Fall. Aug 1st is “National Night Out” . Free hot dogs, chips and misc. geared toward kids. The town fire truck will be taken to the event in Aurora. They will be requesting a temporary beer license for their event on Sept. 23. A meeting will be held here on Sept 20. We should be receiving an email for 2% dues in the amount of $1389.51. The fire dept. is to use this for education or equipment. 2 new fire # signs have been ordered. Chairman McLain was told they sometimes take 1 to 2 months to come in. There was a Spring Lake Road sign put up covering a fire # which will be removed. Brushing and grading roads still needs to be done. Clerk reported that we received a call from Legislative Audit Bureau informing us that the state is not doing audits at this time. We will need to continue to look for a CPA. Florence Town Clerk suggested that we request help from Lori Sleeter to clean up the QuickBooks program. I will call and ask if she would help and what would be the cost. We have submitted quarterly reports going back to the 2nd quarter of 2021 to Social Sec., DWD, and Sate of Wisc. Withholding. All quarters needed to be filed. Being this late there could be penalties applied. All Election information has been filed and caught up to date except for about 5 registrations that will need to be redone because they cannot be found. Motion to pay bill made by Supervisor Larison seconded by Chairman McLain, all in favor motion carried. Supervisor Woehler made a motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Chairman McLain, all in favor motion carried. Next meeting will be on Aug 15th at 6:00 pm Julie Johnson, Fence Town Clerk/Treasurer _________ Meeting Minutes June 20 2023 Meeting called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call all members present. Approval of the minutes from May meeting. Motion was made Supervisor Larison second by Supervisor Woehler all in favor motion carried. Approval of agenda was made by Supervisor Woehler seconded by Supervisor Larison all in favor motion carried. Cemetery update from Tom Harrison. He needs information of what is there. The information should be kept on file at the Town Hall. The cost being charged should be in meeting minutes from 2 years ago. He believes it is $300 to $600. A policy should be written up to keep on file. Property was given to the town in approximately 1969 from Larry Dzekute and his mother. Tom and Chairman McLain will try to meet with Gloria Dzekute to try to locate paperwork. Hall and Pavilion rental contract will be looked at. Clerk Johnson will check with other towns to get comparisons. Fence Post application to renew a combination “Class B” liquor/beer license and cigarette license was not complete. More information is needed before being approved. A special meeting will have to be scheduled when the application is complete. An employee review will take place during the next town board meeting on July 18 in closed session. Fire dept. report from Jeff Sternhagen. One fire was reported on memorial weekend on Morgan Lake Rd. The first address the fire dept. went to was the wrong address. They went to the area that the call came from. The fire was burning for 2 weeks. The brush truck, ATV and engine were all at the fire. It is being investigated as being suspicious. July meeting at the town hall was canceled. They will be holding a raffle running until Sept 23. They would like to use the town hall or pavilion for the drawing and possibly food. They used a refund from the DNR for a trailer for the side by side. They would also like to designate a landing spot for helicopters for future needs. New signs have been ordered after last month’s road inspection. ATV and UTV signs have been ordered stating “Cameras in use” . This is hoping to keep the destructive driving under control. Clerk report of penalties that will be applied to numerous unpaid and unfiled reports from the past year and a half. There was nothing filed with elections held since the April 2021 election. Clerk training must be completed to access the Wisc. Election Commission. If nothing is reported by the end of July everyone now registered to vote will have to reregister. We still haven’t received any receipts for a check written for misc. items before former clerk left office. Motion to pay bill made by Supervisor Larison seconded by Supervisor Woehler all in favor motion carried. Supervisor Woehler made a motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Supervisor Larison all in favor motion carried. Next meeting will be on July 18th at 6:00 pm Julie Johnson, Fence Town Clerk/Treasurer _________ Meeting Minutes May 16th Meeting called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call all members present. Approval of the agenda. Motion was made Supervisor Larison second by Supervisor Woehler all in favor motion carried. Approval of April’s minutes made by Supervisor Woehler seconded by Supervisor Larison all in favor motion carried. Motion to approve Clerk/Treasurer report by Supervisor Larison second by Supervisor Woehler. All in favor motion carried. Road report that road inspection was done May 9th. Things looked good. Some road signs need to be changed due to fading. Approximately 17 signs. Jim continues to talk to the state to continue to get the cost of the bridge down more. Fire Dept will be using the hall for a meeting on June Fence Post will receive an application to renew a combination liquor/beer license and cigarette license to be approved at the June 20 meeting. Supervisor Woehler reported that the Fence dump will start being open on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm till 6pm. Motion to pay bill made by Supervisor Larison seconded by Supervisor Woehler all in favor motion carried. Supervisor Woehler made a motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Supervisor Larison all in favor motion carried. Next meeting will be on June 20th. Julie Johnson Fence Town Clerk _________ Meeting Minutes May 16th Meeting called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call all members present. Approval of the agenda. Motion was made Supervisor Larison second by Supervisor Woehler all in favor motion carried. Approval of April’s minutes made by Supervisor Woehler seconded by Supervisor Larison all in favor motion carried. Motion to approve Clerk/Treasurer report by Supervisor Larison second by Supervisor Woehler. All in favor motion carried. Road report that road inspection was done May 9th. Things looked good. Some road signs need to be changed due to fading. Approximately 17 signs. Jim continues to talk to the state to continue to get the cost of the bridge down more. Fire Dept will be using the hall for a meeting on June 21 Fence Post will receive an application to renew a combination liquor/beer license and cigarette license to be approved at the June 20 meeting. Supervisor Woehler reported that the Fence dump will start being open on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm till 6pm. Motion to pay bill made by Supervisor Larison seconded by Supervisor Woehler all in favor motion carried. Supervisor Woehler made a motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Supervisor Larison all in favor motion carried. Next meeting will be on June 20th. Julie Johnson Fence Town Clerk _________ TOWN OF FENCE BOARD OF REVIEW MINUTES TUESDAY MAY 16, 2023 5:45pm AT THE FENCE TOWN HALL Meeting was called to order by Chairman McLain Roll call Had all Board Members present. Approval of the agenda was made by Supervisor Larison 2nd by Supervisor Woehler. Elect BOR Chairperson. A motion was made by Supervisor Larison to appoint Supervisor Woehler. Motion 2nd by Chairman McLain. All in favor, Motion carried. Set date for BOR Chairman McLain made a motion to postpone BOR until a later date with a 2nd from Supervisor Woehler. Motion to adjourn from Supervisor Larison with 2nd by Supervisor Woehler. All in favor, motion carried Posted at Fence Post, Fence Post Office, Fence Town Hall