Special Board Meeting — Minutes

VILLAGE OF FOOTVILLE-MEETING NOTICE SPECIAL BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2025 MINUTES 1. The Special Board Meeting of the Village of Footville Board of Trustees was called to order by President John Thomson at 6:00 pm. Board members present: J. Thomson, N. Beal, N. Conaway, D. Harnack, J. Harnack, D. Wells and R. Nath via Zoom. Also present: Sandy Baertschi, Robert Selck, Marilyn Runaas. 2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA: Motion by N. Conaway, 2nd by N. Beal to approve the agenda. Motion carried unanimously. 3. CITIZENS WISHING TO BE HEARD: Sandy Baertschi received permission from the landowner on Hwy 11 to cut the trees that are blocking the ‘Welcome to Footville’ sign. Corey Mielke has mowed his lot, but the building has not been completed. There are several residents that have been sent multiple letters regarding cleaning up their properties, but no progress has been made. This will be put on the next board agenda. 4. Appoint a citizen to the open Fire Commission seat: J. Thomson would like to appoint Tom Ragnar to the vacant seat on the Fire Commission. He lives in the Village and was formerly a fire chief in Illinois. D. Harnack asked if there should be three board members on the Fire Commission, as that is how it was in the past. D. Wells also asked if we should have separate police and fire committees. N. Conaway suggested renaming it to the Public Safety Commission. Restructuring the committee will be put on the agenda for next month’s meeting. 5. Road grant applications: Jason Dupuis from Battermann informed J. Thomson of several road grants the Village can apply for. There is no cost to apply for the grants. The Village needs to strategically think about repairing roads. Janesville Street and Galena Road are the most pressing as County B is now a Class A highway so there is a lot more truck traffic going through town. C Street is also in need of repair. Motion by N. Beal, 2nd by J. Harnack to ask Jason Dupuis to complete the road grant applications. Motion carried unanimously. 6. Request for $100,000 for new bathrooms at the park: Bob Selck presented a proposal for two new bathrooms to be built at the park. One in the lower park and one by the upper diamond. They will both be unisex bathrooms. The estimate for the building at the lower park is $47,000 and the estimate for the building at the upper park is $59,200. They would like to build the restroom at the lower park this year. The concession stand could also be added onto the restroom building, and/or the restroom building could be hooked onto the stone pavilion. The Friends of the Footville Parks non-profit will hold fundraisers to help pay for the restrooms and other improvements at the park, but they are also looking for support from the Village. There are grants available for this project that they will be applying for. The grants do require a commitment of funds from the Village to support these projects. The Village does have unspent funds from 2025 that could be put towards this project. Motion by R. Nath, 2nd by J. Thomson to move forward with setting aside money to commit to the bathroom project. Motion carried 6-1. 7. Review candidates for open police department positions and set date for interviews: There are four applicants for the two open positions. The board will interview all applicants. N. Conaway talked to Tom Kunkle, he would be interested in working with the village to oversee the department and make sure training and reporting is completed. He may also have part-time officers that would be interested in picking up hours in the Village. This is something that will be looked into in the future. The proposed budget includes $77,500 for police wages. Interviews will be held October 28, 2025. N. Conaway will call the applicants to schedule the interviews. 8. Resolution to participate in the Wisconsin Retirement System: Motion by N. Beal, 2nd by J. Harnack to pass the resolution to join the Wisconsin Retirement System. Motion carried unanimously. 9. Letter to property owners regarding no overnight parking on Depot Street: Sending letters to property owners and putting letter on vehicles that are parking overnight in the 200 block of Depot Street was discussed. Motion by N. Beal, 2nd by J. Thomson to write letters regarding overnight parking on Depot Street. Motion carried unanimously. 10. Purchase of hydraulic hoses for leaf vac system: DPW will purchase hydraulic hoses so the leaf vacuum and wagon will not have to be hooked and unhooked each time the wagon needs to be emptied. The cost for the hoses and fittings will fall below the spending limit so the public works employees can buy what is needed for this. 11. Trimming of trees in the Village: R. Nath has a quote for trimming trees in the Village for $3,600. The Village will send letters to residents who have trees which need to be trimmed. If the residents choose, they can take part in this, and the cost will be $75 to the property owner. Trees will be trimmed in late November/early December. If the resident chooses not to participate, they will need to have their trees trimmed at their own expense. Letters will be sent out to residents this week and they will have until November 17th to let the Village know if they would like the Village to take care of trimming their trees. Motion by J. Harnack, 2nd by D. Harnack to go ahead with sending letters to residents and having trees trimmed. Motion carried unanimously. 12. Cost of hauling leaves to Steve Haberman’s: The charge for each load of leaves will be $30. Last year they picked up 8 – 10 wagon loads of leaves. Motion by N. Conaway, 2nd by J. Harnack to approve paying $30/load of leaves hauled to Steve Haberman’s. Motion carried unanimously. 13. Quote for spraying weeds at the Community Park: A quote from FS was presented for spraying the weeds at the park. The quote is for $900 but will be slightly less because they need to adjust the area that will be sprayed. This will be done as soon as possible. Motion by J. Harnack, 2nd by R. Nath to approve spraying the weeds at the park. Motion carried unanimously. 14. PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ON OTHER MATTERS NOT PROPOSED FOR BOARD ACTION: D. Harnack - the new scoreboard has been installed. Thanks to Chuck Duncan, Chuck Hagmann, Footville Heating and Cooling and Bill Burchard for giving their time to install the scoreboard and sponsor sign. The only thing left is to install the lighted flagpole and the second sponsor board. The cameras are up in the park. Thank you to Roland Nath and John Thomson for working on that project. The maple tree donated in memory of Gary Loofboro has been planted in the park. Chuck Duncan will be fixing the grandstand soon. The sign has been ordered for the compost site. D. Wells - asked what is being done regarding the fire department paying for water they use outside the Village. Orfordville has an ordinance for this which he will bring to the next meeting. This will be added to next month’s agenda. N. Beal – asked if we wanted to continue getting dumpsters from John’s for the rest of the rubble from demolition of the house by the park or if the board would want to hire Bjoin to haul it away. The board agreed to continue using dumpsters from John’s Disposal as originally approved. He had a resident ask if a chain/fence of some type could be put up along the Veteran’s Park as people are parking on the grass in the Veteran's Park. Nate also asked about the grease trap ordinance and if that is in effect. Letters will be sent to businesses detailing the ordinance requirements and the first inspections will be in January. J. Harnack – asked about the cameras in the park and who had access to them. N. Conaway – happy the house is down, and we can now move forward with making that a parking lot for the park. J. Thomson – complimented on the park decorations. R. Nath – asked if there was a timeline for taking down the flags and putting the wreaths up. 15. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by J. Harnack, 2nd by N. Conaway to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 7:46 pm. Submitted by: Stacy Neal Village Clerk/Treasurer