October 14, 2024

1 TOWN OF PORT EDWARDS MONTHLY BOARD MEETING MINUTES Date: October 14th, 2024 Call to Order: Chairman Randy Moody called the regular Town Board meeting to order at 6:12p.m. The pledge of allegiance was recited at the start of the public hearing on the revised Town comprehensive plan so this meeting began after the call to order. Meeting Certification: This meeting has been properly posted (on the Town Hall door), as well as published on our website to notify the public of date, place, time, and agenda. Attendance: Chairman Randy Moody, Supervisors Tim Schmidt, Jeff O’Donnell, Treasurer Kathy Reese, and Clerk Michelle Sorenson. There were also six people present from the public. Approval of minutes from September 9th, 2024, Town Board Meeting Minutes: Clerk presented the minutes from September’s meeting. The minutes of the September regular monthly Town meeting looked accurate and acceptable. Motion was made by O’Donnell and seconded by Schmidt to accept the minutes as printed. Motion carried. Agenda: Approve the agenda Approve previous meetings’ minutes Approve payment of bills Treasurer and Clerk’s monthly reports Set date for next month’s board meeting Set date for public hearing on proposed 2025 Town budget Review correspondence • Village of Port Edwards fire contract Highway Superintendent report New business: • Village of Port Edwards Fire Chief present to answer questions/concerns on contract • Operator license application for Ho-Chunk Gaming • Begin preparations for hosting WTA meeting in January 2025 • Statuses of the properties within the Town in violation of the Town’s nuisance ordinance Old business: • Update on Town hall accessibility issues Topics for future discussion Public input Adjourn Motion was made by O’Donnell and seconded by Schmidt to approve the agenda. Motion carried. 2 Bills: O’Donnell made a motion to approve payment of the town bills listed by the Clerk. Motion was seconded by Schmidt and the motion carried. Total disbursements for the month of September were $48,288.27 with total revenues being $1,294.52. Treasurer and Clerk Financial Reports: The Treasurer and Clerk reports were reviewed by the Board. All reports balance. Total Town money as of September 30th, 2024, is $249,781.72. Correspondence: Moody had a conversation with Brad Hamilton who had been on vacation for a bit. Upon his return, Mr. Hamilton read up on what he missed in the minutes from the County board meetings and discovered the Plank Hill reconstruction is set to begin in 2025 with completion to be in 2026. Moody was also in receipt of the current County snow contract for salt. He will complete and return. Highway Superintendent Report: The crew is working on finishing up road patching and mowing. The marsh roads will be graded once before gun hunting season and if needed, one additional time before the snow flies. The patrol trucks are at the County highway shop getting looked over and made ready for the winter months. A tree on Wilhorn Road is split down the middle and will need to be cut down. The road crew will temporarily close that part of the road to cut it down. They’re expecting the job to take no longer than an hour and plan on going back to cut it up at a later date. New Business: Village of Port Edwards Fire: The acting fire chief could not make the meeting tonight so Betsy Mancl attended in his place. Currently the fire department has 19 members. They are all volunteers. There is a possibility the department will be adding 3 more members. The question was raised about the department’s first responders and if they were included in our contract price. Betsy will go back and talk to the fire chief about it and report back to the Town board. O’Donnell made a motion to approve acceptance of the Village of Port Edwards 2025 fire contract and Schmidt seconded. Motion carried. Operator License: An application was received from the Ho-Chunk Nation for another operator license. The operator has completed the server’s course and the application fee has been paid. O’Donnell made a motion to approve issuing the operator license. Schmidt seconded said motion and the motion passed. WTA Meeting: The Town is expecting around 50 attendees. The Clerk will contact Heather Sairs who manages the Community Center to discuss cost of renting the hall. Moody will look into finding a speaker for that night. Status on Nuisance Properties: Another letter with a copy of the updated nuisance ordinance was mailed to Gene Aron. He gave no response by the deadline. The building inspector made a stop at the dilapidated trailer homes that are pushed together on Highway G. No one was around but it appeared as thought they had begun to dismantle them. Kellnhofer remains the same. The owners of Lot 3 of Bollig Court have moved their belongings out of the right-of-way. They do however, have a storage container encroaching the neighboring lot’s boundary. Adam has talked to them about getting the container moved. 3 Old Business: Town Hall Accessibility Issues: The small things are being done in the near future, such as changing of the hall’s doorknob, making room for wheelchair access in the handicapped voting booth, and the raising of the handicapped parking signs. The chairman is still waiting for quotes to come back from the business’s he contacted for redoing the approach. The clerk will respond to the Department of Justice’s findings. Public input: A resident in attendance asked what was needed to be able to set up a Sto-Cor container on his property. All he needs is a land use permit and can get one by contacting the highway shop. Next Scheduled Board Meeting: The next regularly scheduled Town Board Meeting is set for Monday, November 11th, 2024. The meeting will begin upon the conclusion of the Public Hearing on the proposed Town budget for 2025 and the special meeting of the electors for approving the levy to be collected in 2025. The public hearing begins at 6:00p.m. and all of the afore mentioned meetings will take place in the Town hall. Edit: The public hearing on the budget and special meeting of the electors was moved to November 18th, 2024, starting at 6:00p.m. in the Town hall. Adjourn: Being no other business to conduct, O’Donnell made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:13p.m. and Schmidt seconded. All were in favor and the motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Michelle Sorenson, Clerk