April 2024

1 TOWN OF PORT EDWARDS MONTHLY BOARD MEETING MINUTES Date: April 8th, 2024 Call to Order: Chairman Randy Moody called the regular Town Board meeting to order at 6:00p.m. The pledge of allegiance was recited to begin the meeting. 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, Clerk Michelle Sorenson and Highway Superintendent Adam Lueneburg. There were also nine people present from the public. Approval of minutes from March 11th, 2024, Public Hearing and Town Board Meeting Minutes: Clerk presented the minutes from March’s meetings. The minutes of the public hearing and regular monthly Town meeting looked accurate and acceptable. Motion was made by Schmidt and seconded by O’Donnell 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 Review correspondence Highway Superintendent report New business: Andrew Aslesen to speak on the Source Water Protection Program Adjust election worker’s pay to match what other municipalities are paying Discuss spending options for the remaining ARPA funds Approve a policy on public records accessibility Update contract with Alliance Collection Agencies Old business: Update on Ruesch certified survey map Public input Adjourn Motion was made by O’Donnell and seconded by Schmidt to approve the agenda. Motion carried. Bills: O’Donnell made a motion to approve payment of the town bills as listed by the Clerk. Motion was seconded by Schmidt and the motion carried. Total disbursements for the month of March were $52,813.02 with total revenues being $1,788.50. Treasurer and Clerk Financial Reports: The Treasurer and Clerk reports were reviewed by the Board. All reports balance. Total Town money as of March 31st, 2024, is $288,434.33. Schmidt made a motion to accept the reports as delivered. O’Donnell seconded said motion. Motion carried. 2 Correspondence: The week of April 8th, is Tornado/Severe Weather Awareness week Compost passes are available and the cost to purchase one this year is $65.00. North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission sent a work agreement to the Town. This outlined the process for updating the Town’s Comprehensive Plan. The Town needs to put together a committee that will work with NCWRPC during the updating process that should last approximately nine months. The committee includes Pat Martinson, Larry Egland, Brad O’Donnell, Brendan Doughty, and Neil Heinrich. Upon completion, the committee will bring the updated Comprehensive Plan to the Town board for approval. Highway Superintendent Report: The crew has been working on patching roads. Many are in rough shape. The grader is finished and should be coming back this week. Adam, along with the rest of the board, received an email from the Esser’s about the condition of north Kimball Avenue. The condition of the road is poor. According to our road plan, that road looks to be scheduled for repair in 2026 at the earliest. New Business: Source Water Protection Program: Andrew Aslesen is a Source Water Specialist who helps develop plans to protect water sources. He has done plans for the City of Nekoosa and the Village of Port Edwards. Municipal wells should have overlay zones to help keep source water cleaner. He wanted to reach out to the Town of Port Edwards to see if there is interest in helping to protect the water quality of our neighboring municipalities. Even though their wells are outside of our Town’s boundaries we can do things to help ensure clean drinking water. The City of Nekoosa’s well is only 46.5 feet deep which is rather shallow, but it delivers water to 3,000 people. A well head protection ordinance would create a zoning district overlay for future developments. Looking at current proximity with regards to this new ordinance, the Town’s salt/sand pile would have to be moved. Andrew said the Town could remove that language from the ordinance and maybe insert the State of Wisconsin regulating language for salt/sand piles that the Town already follows. We have the opportunity to make the ordinance our own. The board took this information under advisement and will discuss it at a later time. Election Worker Wages: Clerk informed the board that the Town is paying little to nothing for election workers who are vital to the election process. An election worker was making $10/hour and the chief inspector was being paid $12/hour. The County Clerk informed the Town Clerk the average is closer to $20/hour. Schmidt made a motion to increase election inspector pay to $15/hour and the chief election inspector will go to $17/hour. O’Donnell seconded the motion and the motion carried. ARPA Funds: Projects that still need to be done are the installation of an extra garage door in the highway shop, replacement of windows and siding at the community center, and repair and expansion of the steps and landing to the Town Hall. Schmidt made a motion to use the rest of the Town’s ARPA funds ($31,391.74) on road maintenance and repairs in the coming year in an effort to keep the reporting process simple. O’Donnell seconded the motion and it passed. Public Records Policy: The Wisconsin Towns Association emailed a public records accessibility policy template to the clerk. The clerk edited the template to be specific to the Town of Port Edwards. It spells out who to contact with open records requests and notifies the public of potential costs. Schmidt made a motion to accept the Public Records Accessibility 3 Policy. O’Donnell seconded the motion and the motion carried. Moody will have the policy included in the updated book of Town ordinances, policies and forms. Alliance Collection Agencies Contract: Alliance sent the clerk an updated contract since it has been several years since the Town has had to send anyone to them. The contract appeared to be standard for the industry and was available for review. Schmidt made a motion to approve the signing of the updated contract and O’Donnell seconded the motion. Motion carried with all in favor. Old Business: There has been no updates on the status of the Ruesch certified survey map. Item is tabled until next month. Public input: There was none. Next Scheduled Board Meeting: The next regularly scheduled Town Board Meeting is set for Monday, May 13th, 2024. The meeting will begin upon the conclusion of the Public Hearings for two conditional use permit applications. Both the Public Hearings and the regular monthly Town board meeting will be conducted at the Port Edwards Town Hall. Adjourn: Being no other business to conduct, O’Donnell made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:11p.m. and Schmidt seconded. All were in favor and the motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Michelle Sorenson, Clerk