March 2022

TOWN OF PORT EDWARDS MONTHLY BOARD MEETING MINUTES Date: March 14th, 2022 Call to Order: Chairman Randy Moody called the Town Board Meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited at the start of the meeting. Meeting Certification: This meeting has been properly posted (on the Town’s three posting boards, and on the Town Hall door) as well as published on our website and in the Daily Tribune, to notify the public of date, place, time, and agenda. Attendance: Chairman Randy Moody, Supervisors Tim Schmidt and Jeff O’Donnell, Treasurer Kathy Reese, Clerk Michelle Sorenson, and Road Superintendent Al Goodness. There were also several people present from the public. Approval of minutes from February 14th, 2022, Town Board Meeting: Clerk presented the minutes from the February meeting. The minutes 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 New business: Update on Town’s insurance, water research idea presentation by the Village of Port Edwards, approve utility permit for 3518 Wilhorn Road. Old business: Kellnhofer update; review changes for an updated dog ordinance along with discussion on general ordinance enforcement, ARPA funds discussion, discuss options for updating the Town Comprehensive Plan, determine best option for covering the grader needs of the Town. 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 listed by the Clerk. Motion was seconded by Schmidt and the motion carried. Total disbursements for the month of February were $517,327.27 with total revenues being $676,322.86. Treasurer and Clerk Financial Reports: The Treasurer and Clerk reports were reviewed by the Board. Treasurer stated her report is off by $0.04. She will forward a corrected report to the Board upon her return home. Total Town money as of February 28th, 2022, is $356,694.15. O’Donnell made a motion to accept the reports. Schmidt seconded said motion. Motion carried. 1 Correspondence: The Clerk received two operator license applications from the Ho-Chunk Gaming Nekoosa. Both operators have had the beverage server’s course and the $10 fee for each license has been paid. Schmidt made a motion to approve the two new operator licenses for the casino and O’Donnell seconded. Motion carried. Moody received notice of a timber cutting on Greg Witt’s property in the Town. Moody also received a copy of an estimate for chip sealing Port Road from Scott Construction. The estimate must have been requested from the Village of Port Edwards. The number on the quote or a quarter mile of chip sealing was $6,766.00. This will be added to the April agenda for action. A price list for red rock road base was reviewed. New Business: Insurance; The Town’s insurance renews in May and our agent Joe Grant would like to attend our meeting at that time. This will be placed on the May agenda. Water research idea; Ray “Boz” Bossert presented. He has been the Village of Port Edwards administrator for just over two years now. He noted clean water is important to everyone. He would like to see a more aggressive approach to understanding the water concerns in our area than what the County has adopted. Both municipal and private wells in the County need to be canvassed. The County has not been very supportive of his ideas. They told him that the Land Management department will get to it in about two to three years. Under his plan, he would like to see at least 34 municipalities contribute $10,000 of the ARPA grant monies they received. Boz would use this money to fund a part-time employee for at least one year who would be tasked with gathering all of the necessary information to make the water quality data complete. Saratoga and Grand Rapids towns are willing to contribute. Boz would like to see a June start date for this part-time employee (who would be employed through the Village of Port Edwards). Boz provided the Town Board with a packet outlining his proposal. The subject will be carried forward to next month’s agenda for discussion by the Town Board. Utility permit; The utility permit application was reviewed by the Board. O’Donnell made a motion to accept the application for utility services being done at 3518 Wilhorn Road. Schmidt seconded the motion and it carried. Old Business: Kellnhofer; He called the Town Chairman today. He informed Moody that he got rid of six vehicles and has many more to go. Ordinance changes and enforcement; O’Donnell presented on his research. The ordinances, specifically the Nuisance and Citation ordinances, from the Town of Saratoga would be beneficial for the Town of Port Edwards to adopt. O’Donnell will amend them and email drafts to the rest of the Town Board for assessment prior to the next meeting. ARPA Funds; The Board made a list of ideas on where to spend the ARPA funds that the Town has received and then the ideas were ranked. Coming in at number one was the replacement of the Town’s fire numbers. An updated estimate for replacement will be needed but the Board is estimating the cost to be around $15,000. Second was giving a $5,000 donation to the Town’s first responders. In third place, the Board agreed that a $5,000 2 contribution to Boz’s water quality proposal would be appropriate. A $10,000 commitment was believed to be a little steep when taking into consideration the Town of Port Edwards’ population and ARPA funds received. Next at number four was securing either a grader or grader services from somewhere. Kathy from the Town of Remington said they plan on getting their grader out once it thaws and have no problem grading for us. Finally on the list at number five was the purchase of a new patrol truck. Unfortunately, no one is taking orders for them at this time. As an alternative to a new patrol truck, the purchase of a 1 Ton dump truck with a plow would also be beneficial to the Town. Roads were discussed. There is a 90/10 grant program available and the Board was thinking it might pay to apply for that grant with the paving of Batterman Road. A meeting between Joel from the Wood County Highway Department, the Town of Remington and the Town of Port Edwards has been set up to prepare the application. Comprehensive plan; O’Donnell contacted the Wisconsin Department of Administration and the County Planning and Zoning department. He was told the Town could simply readopt the old plan but doing that was not recommended. O’Donnell is still waiting for the County to get back to him with more information. Town grader; This was discussed during the ARPA funds designations. Public input: Some residents from the Batterman Road took the floor. They mentioned Batterman is having the best spring ever since the posting of the weight limits and reduced speed signs by the Town. Schmidt added that Wood County Highway is looking for places to utilize their grader. They may also have funds available that the County may be willing to designate to the Town for use on the management of Batterman Road. Next Scheduled Board Meeting: The next regularly scheduled Town Board Meeting is set for Monday, April 11th, 2022, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be conducted at the Port Edwards Town Hall. It was also mentioned that the Annual Town meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 19th, 2022, at 6p.m. and will be held in the Town Hall. Adjourn: O’Donnell made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:41 p.m. and Schmidt seconded. All were in favor and the motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Michelle Sorenson, Clerk 3